Hefty salaries: SC orders NAB to rectify list

LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to rectify its list pertaining to officers of public sector companies and authorities in Punjab drawing salaries over Rs 300,000. As hearing started, NAB Lahore DG Shahzad Saleem told a two-judge bench that a bank account had opened in Islamabad to facilitate government officers who volunteered to return amount they received beyond their regular salaries.

However, he pointed out that 18 such officers had decided to fight a legal battle.

Advocate Ahsan Bhoon appeared on behalf of the heads of different companies and argued that the NAB also included such officers in its list who had been receiving salaries over Rs 300,000 per month as per their basic pay scale.

He said the NAB prepared a faulty list about the salaries of the officers.

Punjab Revenue Authority’s former Dr Raheel Siddiqui told the court that the NAB also issued him a notice for recovery of the salary beyond Rs 300,000.

Whereas, he said he was getting salary as per entitlement being a BS-21 officer.

To this, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar directed the NAB to prepare its list afresh and exclude the officers who had been drawing salaries beyond Rs 300,000 as per their entitlement.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court disposed of Kashmala Tariq’s plea against expulsion of his son from Aitchison College, directing her to approach the Lahore High Court first.

Kashmala is the current Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplaces, since February 2018.

Reportedly, her son was among the 12 boys who were suspended from senior school over a nasty fight on campus.

Chief Justice Nisar observed that the children’s small mistakes should be ignored, asking Kashmala to move a petition to the LHC which was the proper forum for the redressal of her grievance.