NAB cleansing: chairman transfers top officials facing probe

ISLAMABAD: The Tuesday’s reshuffle in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is part of Chairman NAB Justice (R) Javed Iqbal’s move to put his own house in order after a number of complaints emerged against some of his subordinate officers in different bureaus, The News has learnt.

This week the chairman ordered transfer of six top officials of the Bureau including four director generals. According to sources at least two DGs who were transferred had been facing charges of corruption and misuse of authority.

The Director General NAB Rawalpindi Nasir Iqbal who has been transferred on Tuesday to Awareness and Prevention section was facing two inquiries ordered by the chairman. Fresh documents available with The News also point to misuse of authority on part of Nasir Iqbal who was probing about 50 housing societies in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. According to documents Iqbal ordered an inquiry against the management of Margalla View Housing Society on September 12, 2017 in violation of NAB’s Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) 2015. In gist of allegation, the document mentions change in the approved lay out plan, a charge which is used in 90% cases against housing societies.

The SOPs clearly direct NAB DG to seek approval of the chairman to initiate probe in cases involving public at large if the number of defrauded people is less than 50 and amount involved is less than 100 million. But in the above mentioned case only one complainant was mentioned and no amount was specified yet the NAB’s own document revealed that the Director General himself authorised inquiry against the society instead of seeking approval from the chairman NAB.

A senior NAB official said the case is clear misuse of authority which is apparently aimed at harassing Housing Authorities and minting benefits consequently. However giving his version to The News, NAB DG Nasir Iqbal claimed that he did nothing illegal during his tenure. He said no inquiry against any Housing Authority was opened or closed without following the due procedure. However he admitted that some people in NAB Rawalpindi were not happy with him so complaints might have been filed to the chairman.

Earlier the chairman had ordered inquiry against Nasir Iqbal for illegally detaining a junior officer, Bilal Pannu, wrongly accusing him of leaking a picture of an accused to the media. Iqbal was also facing a corruption case in a housing scam relating to the Ministry of Commerce. NAB DG Human Resource Shakeel Malik who was transferred by the chairman on Monday was also facing a corruption case for allegedly having a role in the same housing scam.

Ministry of Commerce Employees’ Cooperative Housing Society President Rana Ghulam Fareed had written a letter to the NAB chief and the Chief Justice of Pakistan requesting them to take notice of the alleged involvement of HR Director General Malik Shakeel, Rawalpindi DG Nasir Iqbal and Director Col (R) Javed in alleged grabbing the property of the housing society through unfair means.

In recent past, the current NAB chairman repatriated the services of four deputy directors of grade-19 to their parent departments on the recommendations of the enquiry committee which was formed by the SC with the task to probe the illegal appointments and cases of deputationists in the NAB.

HR DG Malik Shakeel, Rawalpindi DG Nasir Iqbal and Director Col (R) Javed could not be contacted despite several attempts; however, sources close to them deny any charges against them.

When contacted by The News, the spokesperson of NAB Nawazish Ali Khan said he cannot comment on the recent development but added that chairman NAB is committed to improving the performance of the anti-graft body.