LAHORE:An accountability court on Thursday returned a reference to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against seven accused, including income tax and bank officials, involved in fake income tax refunds.
The court directed the bureau to take up the matter with the relevant forum for further action. The court held that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction as per amended National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 2022.
Accountability Court Judge Sajjad Ahmad passed the orders while deciding an application, filed by the accused challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the matter.
The accused, including Income Tax Department Superintendent Habibur Rehman, had filed the application under the amended NAO, saying that the accountability court was not empowered to hear any reference involving an amount below Rs 500 million, under the amended law. They submitted that the reference amount was below Rs 500 million and it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the court.
NAB had filed a reference against the accused, Habibur Rehman, Waris Ali, Arif Mehmood and others, over fake income tax refunds. They were accused of withdrawing Rs 40 million from banks by submitting fake income tax refund vouchers.