LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday sought a reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a petition of PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah challenging an inquiry into illegal assets allegedly amassed by him.

In his initial arguments on the petition, Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar stated that the NAB opened the impugned inquiry with mala fide intention and on political consideration at the behest of the government.

He said the NAB acted beyond its jurisdiction and started issu-ing him summons to appear in its inquiry.

He said on each appearance in the inquiry, the bureau`s investigators did nothing but offered a cup of tea to the petitioner and made him wait for long.

At this, Justice Ali Bagar Najafi, in a lighter vein, referred to tea served to Indian pilot Abhinandan by Pakistan army during his captivity.

Coming back to the case, the judge observed that prima facie the impugned inquiry was not beyond the jurisdiction of the NAB.

Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, other member of the two-judge bench, noted that article 13 of the Constitution, which protects double punishment, did not put abar on inquiry.

Advocate Tarar said the NAB was investigating the same assets already frozen by Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) following a drug case against him. He said both the NAB and the ANF were the institutions of the federal government.

He pointed out that the ANF claimed the petitioner accumulated the assets through alleged smuggling of narcotics while the NAB took a ground that the assets had been amassed through corrupt practices.

He said the NAB implicated the petitioner in the inquiry after his release on bail in the drug case. He asked the bench to suspend the impugned inquiry.

NAB prosecutor Faisal Raza Bokhari, however, argued that the inquiry had already been in process before the petitioner`s bail in the drug case.

The bench observed that it normally preferred to entertain petitions for prearrest bails instead of suspending process of the inquiries by the NAB.

The bench issued a notice to the NAB and sought its reply on the matter by March 25.

Meanwhile, Mr Khan filed petition seeking prearrest bail fearing his possible arrest by the NAB in the same case.

The bench will take up the bail petition on Thursday (today).