ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel comprising some of the leading members has sought a comprehensive briefing from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman on the performance, cognisance of cases, prosecution, recoveries and officers working in the anti-graft watchdog.
It is rare in the parliamentary history that the NAB chief has been asked to give details of the working of his organisation that politicians and members of Parliament have always been scared of due to its actions. It has been officially stated that the Senate Committee on Law and Justice will convene on Wednesday to hear Justice (R) Javed Iqbal for the first time.
Its agenda includes a briefing by the NAB chairman regarding working and overall performance; procedure of taking cognisance of cases, inquiry and prosecution; pending cases at various stages along with current status and reasons for pendency in each one; recoveries made during the last three years; cases disposed of along with the percentage of acquittal/conviction; criterion for giving current/acting charge to officers and the duration of such arrangements; officers working on deputation, current/acting charge basis, mentioning their names, designations, previous posts and departments; officers whose services have been absorbed/merged in NAB and those who served in it multiple times on deputation and current/acting charges; and number of instances where its regular officers were superseded by the deputationists as well as current/acting charge and who are subsequently regularised/merged in it.
The 16-member Senate body headed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MP Javed Abbasi consists of Mian Raza Rabbani, Farooq H Naek, Sirajul Haq, Musadik Malik, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, Mushtaq Ahmed, Sana Jamali, Walid Iqbal, Sitara Ayaz and Ateeq Shaikh.
It has been reported that the NAB is the most bloated body in the main federal secretariat and even beats the all-important federal divisions like the foreign affairs, finance and planning development and reforms.
The Annual Statistical Bulletin of federal government employees for the year 2017-18 showed that there are a total of 21,144 employees working in the main federal secretariat. They include 4,034 in grades 17-22 and 17,110 in grade 1-16.
For grade 17 to 22 out of actual working strength of 4,034, the major part 13.09% is working in the NAB, the report said, meaning the anti-corruption outfit has almost 528 officers in grade17 and above.
The bulletin said there are a total of 21,144 employees working in main secretariat, out of those 4,034 are in grade 17-22 and 17,110 in grade 1-16. For grades 17-22 out of actual working strength of 4,034, the major part 13.09% is working in the NAB.
The foreign affairs ranks second with 12.27% of the actual strength of grade 17-22. The information and broadcasting division with 6.79%, planning development and reform division with 5.73% and finance division with 5.28% share stand third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Even in the category of low scale employees - grades 1-16-, the NAB has the second largest number. With regard to 17,110 federal government employees in grade 1-16 working in the secretariat, the bulletin said, maximum employees i.e. 10% are in foreign affairs, followed by the NAB with 8.38%, finance division, National Assembly Secretariat and Senate Secretariat with 5.60%, 4.77% and 4.55% share respectively.