The Supreme Court reserved on Thursday its judgement on appeals against the amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (NAO) – the law that governs the country’s top graft buster.

A five-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Athar Minallah and Azhar Hasan Rizvi heard the pleas against the NAB law tweaks.

Amendments were made to the accountability laws by the then-Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government in 2022. They included reducing the term of the NAB chairman and prosecutor general to three years, limiting NAB’s jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million, and transferring all pending inquiries, investigations, and trials to the relevant authorities.

Khan had filed a petition in 2022 challenging the amendments, claiming that the changes to the NAB law were made to benefit the influential accused persons and legitimise corruption.

In its appeal, the federal government had requested the apex court to set aside the September 15 majority judgement that had declared amendments to the NAO illegal.

On September 15, 2023, the top court by a majority of two-to-one ruled that the public representatives who benefited from the amendments made by the Pakistan Democratic Movement government in the NAO would have to face corruption references again.

In the May 30 hearing, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Justices Athar Minallah, Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Hasan Azhar Rizvi decided in a 4:1 ruling not to stream the proceedings live. Justice Minallah dissented from it.