PTI chief moves SJC against NAB chairman

ISLAMABAD: Opening yet another front, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Wednesday moved the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed, demanding to declare him ineligible to perform his duties for ‘violating the code of conduct’. Through an application, filed under Article 209 of the Constitution and Section 6 of the NAB Ordinance in the SJC, the PTI chief pleaded that the NAB chairman issued warrants for his arrest on May 1, on a holiday, in violation of Section 24 of NAB Ordinance, and kept the warrants secret for eight days. “The arrest of the complainant was executed in a manner which is violative of his fundamental rights available to him under the Constitution of Pakistan, in particular Articles 4, 9, 10-A and 14. Through the execution of arrest warrant, the impression that went to the world is that the complainant is a hardcore terrorist or mercenary or enemy of the state or habitual criminal or a wanted fugitive,” it was said.

The petition said that the actions of NAB chairman, right from issuance of the arrest warrant till execution of the same, suffer from irregularities, illegalities, malafide, indicating he deliberately acted in an arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional manner. The PTI chief said that he was deliberately not told about Al-Qadir Trust’s inquiry being turned into an investigation, alleging that keeping the issue of conversion of inquiry into investigation a secret was a violation of NAB law. He stated that the NAB chairman was found guilty of serious misconduct and violation of his code of conduct; hence he was not able to continue on the post. He demanded that the NAB chairman should be removed immediately.