ISLAMABAD: Aftab Sultan is back — this time as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman.
A retired police officer credited with transforming the Intelligence Bureau into a potent spy agency during his 4-year tenure as director general, Sultan was Thursday announced as the new accountability chief.
His name was under consideration right from the beginning when the head-hunting started after Justice (R) Javed Iqbal — now known for being a controversial head of the Bureau – bowed out.
Sultan wasn’t interested in accepting this hot seat. Instead, he voted for Justice (R) Maqbool Baqir, another respected name. However, the requirement of a two-year break after retirement turned out to be a stumbling block, as the former Supreme Court judge had laid off his robes only in April this year.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif insisted on giving Sultan a role. He was offered a cabinet slot too which he refused, according to sources privy to this development. Sultan served as DG IB under Mian Nawaz Sharif who was reportedly impressed by his integrity and professionalism.
When the former DG FIA Bashir Memon also refused to accept the offer to head the NAB, the PM Office pressed Sultan to take up this challenging assignment which he reluctantly accepted, a source said.
Sultan isn’t a stranger to challenges. He embraced them with courage and delivered without fearing the consequences. It is a common knowledge within the bureaucracy that most of the time during his police service, he was rarely offered a field posting keeping in view his temperament of doing what he considered right. And whenever he was granted such positions, he found himself in trouble.
One such instance is when he was posted in Sargodha as a DIG when erstwhile military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf went for a referendum. Sultan couldn’t obtain enough support from Sargodha Division and was held responsible for non-cooperation and therefore removed. He was later appointed DG IB by the-then prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani but was removed around two years later. One of the main reasons was his reported refusal to allow the use of secret funds for political purposes.
He had also declined to share intelligence with the Presidency on the grounds that the IB was supposed to provide information to the prime minister only. Another reason for falling out of favour was his advice to PM Gilani to adopt a middle path on writing a letter to the Swiss authorities for opening cases against the then President Asif Ali Zardari.
As 2013 elections approached, he was named IGP Punjab. Afterwards, Sultan was picked up again as IB chief when Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister. This was the time when the government provided sufficient funds to whip it into shape. In his four-year (2013-17) term, Sultan made IB the leading counter-terror agency. The IB played an instrumental role in an intelligence-led operation carried out in Karachi with around 80 percent actions taken on the information gathered by the agency and solving some of the most significant cases. It nabbed terrorists who attacked Justice Maqbool Baqir, arrested the mastermind and killers of SSP Chaudhry Aslam and SHO Shafiq Tanoli, target killers of Senator Khalid Mahmood Soomro of JUI-F and renowned social activist Parveen Rehman.
Terrorists involved in a bomb explosion in Abbas Town, Imambargah Shikarpur and Jacobabad suicide blast were also arrested as a result of the IB’s efforts. Besides, the agency averted several other terrorist plans, according to the information obtained from the Prime Minister‘s Secretariat.
Where the success earned him laurels, Sultan was criticised by former prime minister Imran Khan for his reported role in providing an important information about the alleged involvement of the-then head of another prime intelligence agency to prime minister Nawaz Sharif in organising the PTI-PAT dharna in 2014. Imran blamed Sultan for doling out funds to journalists and anchors on behalf of the PMLN government for campaigning against the PTI — an accusation he strongly rebutted.
Sultan settled in Faisalabad after retirement. The Imran Khan government tried to implicate him in a case of importing luxury vehicles by the Nawaz Sharif government for the Saarc summit. The summary of vehicles and subsequent purchase was submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Sultan as DG IB offered assistance in technical matters as to what kind of vehicles were required keeping in view the security needs. He was summoned by the NAB thrice and he appeared each time. No further notice was served. Incidentally, one of the vehicles then purchased is presently in the use of Imran Khan as former PM.