ISLAMABAD: NAB former chairman Javed Iqbal continues to be the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances despite the present government’s eagerness to remove him from the official position.
In July last year, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended to the prime minister to remove the NAB ex-chairman from head of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances but Javed Iqbal is still continuing. The PDM government was also keen to remove him soon after coming into power but it could not be done.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah when approached said that the government was all set to remove him but Javed Iqbal pleaded that he should be allowed to continue till December 2022. The interior minister said that he had promised that he would quit by the end of last year but he is still continuing.
Rana Sanaullah claimed that now Javed Iqbal is using his connections within institutions to prolong his stay in the Commission. Justice (R) Javed Iqbal has continued as chairman of the commission since its creation in 2011. During his tenure as NAB chairman, Javed Iqbal had not quit the commission.
The News tried to contact Javed Iqbal for his version but his mobile number was found off. The PAC in July last year had sent a recommendation to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the removal of Javed Iqbal as the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.
The PAC had moved following Tayyaba Gul’s appearance before the committee in connection with her sexual harassment allegations against former NAB chief Justice (R) Javed Iqbal and others.
In 2019, a leaked controversial video of Javed Iqbal with Tayyaba Gul had surfaced. Gul alleged that following the video scandal she and her husband were involved in different cases by NAB.
Senators from all parties had also moved the Upper House of Parliament seeking the removal of Javed Iqbal as Chairman of the missing persons’ commission. They had submitted a resolution in the Senate, saying that the post of the missing persons’ commission is a very sensitive one and a person accused of sexual harassment should not be heading it.
Last year, the government had also formed a commission to investigate the allegations against Justice (R) Iqbal but the latter had challenged the inquiry against him by the commission in a court of law.
Javed Iqbal was removed as NAB chief on June 3, 2022 after an ordinance granting him an extension had expired and the present government had refused to ratify it. His four-year term had already ended in October 2021.
Tayyaba had claimed that she and her husband were subjected to personal vengeance when the NAB was under Iqbal, though she was later acquitted by a trial court.
Amina Masood Janjua, a human rights activist who works with the families of missing persons, had alleged in a TV talk show that Justice (R) Iqbal had sexually harassed the wife of a missing person when she appeared before the missing persons’ commission.
Ms Janjua claimed when the young woman had approached the commission to inquire about her husband’s whereabouts, Javed Iqbal allegedly told her why she was ‘looking’ for her husband “as she was so beautiful that she can have any man she wants.” Javed Iqbal, however, has been denying these allegations.