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Friday March 29, 2024

Actions speak louder than words

It’s all Chairman’s discretion who should be arrested and who needs to be spared.

By Ansar Abbasi
January 08, 2019

ISLAMABAD: Contrary to his announced policy of across the board accountability, the incumbent Chairman NAB Justice ® Javed Iqbal during his tenure has mainly got arrested the politicians belonging to PML-N but no one from the PTI or any of its coalition partners has been taken into Bureau’s custody as yet.

Although a few belonging to the PPP have also been arrested by NAB during Javed Iqbal’s tenure, no one among retired Generals who are accused in any of the NAB case has also been touched so far.

There is also no one set of rule or SOP being followed by the Bureau under the retired justice as in one case the accused is arrested at inquiry or investigation stage but in another case the arrest is even avoided after the filing of a reference in the accountability court. It’s all Chairman’s discretion who should be arrested and who needs to be spared.

During Javed Iqbal’s appointment as Chairman NAB, the politicians arrested by the Bureau include Shahbaz Sharif, Saad Rafique, Salman Rafique, Engineer Qamarul Islam, Qaiser Amin Butt, Babul Bhayo, Shirjeel Memon, Mir Izhar Hussain Khosa and Hafiz Mian Muhammad Nouman.

Out of these politicians Shahbaz Sharif, Saad Rafique, Salman Rafique, Engineer Qamarul Islam, Qaiser Amin Butt, Hafiz Mian Muhammad Nouman and Mir Izhar Hussain Khosa belonged to the PML-N. In addition to these arrests, the PML-N top leaders Mian Nawaz Sharif, Maryium Nawaz and Capt Safdar were also arrested in NAB cases but following their conviction by the Accountability Court.

Two other politicians including Shirjeel Memon and Babul Bhayo arrested by NAB belong to the Pakistan People’s Party. There is, however, no politician belonging to the PTI who faced arrest at the stage of NAB’s inquiry, investigation or trial during Justice Javed Iqbal’s tenure.

The list of politicians facing NAB inquiries and investigations though include several names belonging to the PTI and its coalition partners. Under the NAB Law, the Chairman has the discretionary power to order the arrest of any accused at any state of inquiry or investigation. It is also upto NAB Chairman not to arrest any accused during inquiry, investigation and trial stages.

According to NAB law, “(e) The Chairman NAB and such members, officers or servants of the NAB shall have and exercise, for the purposes of an inquiry or investigation the power to arrest any person, and all the powers of an officer-in-charge of a Police Station under the Code, and for that purpose may cause the attendance of any person, and when and if the assistance of any agency, police officer or any other official or agency, as the case may be, is sought by the NAB such official or agency shall render such assistance provided that no person shall be arrested without the permission of the Chairman [NAB] or any officer [of NAB] duly authorized by the Chairman NAB.”

This discretionary power of NAB chairman has become controversial because it allows the authority to use the arrest power selectively.

However, what makes this law draconian is the 90 days remand allowed to NAB. According to the law, “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code, where the holder of a public office or any other person accused of an offence is arrested by NAB under this Ordinance, NAB shall, as soon as may be, inform him of the grounds and substance on the basis of which he has been arrested and produce him before, the [Court] within a period of twenty-four hours of arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the [Court] and such person shall, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, be liable to be detained in the custody of NAB for the purpose of inquiry and investigation for a period not exceeding ninety days [and the Court may remand an accused person to custody not exceeding fifteen days at a time and for every subsequent remand the Court shall record reasons in writing copy of which shall be sent to the High Court.]”

A NAB press release issued on Friday, however, claimed, “NAB under the dynamic leadership of Honorable Justice Mr. Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB has been rejuvenated and geared through its proactive anti-corruption strategy by adopting “Accountability for All” policy.”

The NAB added that 59 percent Pakistanis have trust upon NAB due to its across the board actions. Referring to NAB’s performance under Justice Javed Iqbal, it said, “NAB not only received 44315 complaints in 2018 which were almost double from the previous year 2018 and after due process scrutinized complaints in its complaints scrutiny committees as per law but on the basis of prima ficia evidence, 1713 complaints were converted into complaint verifications which were against scrutinized and after complaint verifications 877complaints converted into inquiries. During inquiries, NAB after obtaining point of views of both complainants and accused persons converted into investigation and subsequently 227 investigations were ungraded and 440 corruption references were filed during in respected Accountability courts during the last one year which is an excellent achievement as compared to last five years of NAB.”

It added, “On the basis of across the board accountability under its Enforcement policy, NAB has not only arrested 503 accused persons during one year but also recovered Rs. 2580 million from corrupt elements and deposited all amount in national exchequer and not a single rupee has been taken by any NAB employee as NAB officers/officials considered it their national duty.”

The NAB press release also claims that Chairman NAB strongly believes that NAB is not for victimization against anyone. “NAB has no affiliation with any party as NAB officers are only the servants of the state. Their first and last affiliation is with state of Pakistan,” it added.