ARU 'not even entitled to proceed against a peon at PM Office', Justice Mansoor Ali Shah says

The Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) has been given "wide and extensive powers" despite the fact that the Cabinet's Rules of Business have not empowered Prime Minister Imran Khan to establish new agencies or offices, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has noted.

"The ARU, it is stated as a matter of example, is not even entitled to proceed against a peon at the Prime Minister’s Office," he wrote, in his dissenting note on Justice Isa's petition challenging the reference against him, released on Wednesday.

The ARU, which was set up as a coordinating agency in November 2018, is headed by the Prime Minister's Adviser on Accountability & Interior Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar.

Justice Shah observed that the ARU has been operating without an enabling law or legal cover for the past two years.

Read more: Justice Isa questions Shehzad Akbar’s appointment as ARU head

The unit, he added, is neither a ministry or division, nor was a notification for its establishment published in the official gazette. "The ARU, therefore, for all practical purposes does not legally exist for the world outside the Prime Minister’s Office."

The apex court judge remarked that this is why the very act of the complainant approaching the ARU with a case against Justice Isa was "unconstitutional and illegal".

"There is surprisingly nothing on the record to show how the complainant found out about ARU," he observed.

In the 65-page note, Justice Shah further asked how the ARU is funded when it has "no budgetary support" and "does not pass for an executive" authority.

Also read: SC judge says govt has to prove London proprties were funded by Justice Isa

"In this background, the role of the ARU becomes more suspicious and raises the questions: who funded the investigation and the transnational surveillance of the Petitioner Judge; who paid for the Law Expert of the ARU?"

As for Akbar, the ARU's chairperson, Justice Shah said that without the backing of a legal cover, he has no power or jurisdiction to deal or interact with any third party.