KP NAB gets sixth DG in three years

PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Khyber Pahktunkhawa has got its sixth chief in less than three years.

The new director general, Brig Farooq Naser Awan (retd), will assume his charge for the second time after a break of almost two years. He had served as NAB KP DG in 2017, but transferred after ten months. He served from April 6, 2017 to January 31, 2018.

He had initiated inquires of mega scandals, including the Malam Jabba case, and hopefully he would finalise these cases soon as NAB is facing criticism on the cases pending since long.

After the transfer of former KP NAB DG, Maj Shahzad Saleem (retd) in April 2017, five DGs were transferred in less than three years while sixth one was posted on Wednesday.

Shahzad had the longest tenure while serving at Peshawar for three years from April 2014 to March 2017.

Another officer, Farmanullah Khan, served as DG for 14 months from January, 2018 to February 27, 2019. Mujahid Akhbar Baluch worked as DG from March 5, 2019 to June 18, 2019. Syed Fayyaz Qureshi served NAB KP as its DG from June, 18 to December 11, 2019.

Before his transfer to Peshawar, Awan had been was working as NAB DG in Karachi since October 12, 2018. Earlier, he served as chief of staff and NAB Headquarters DG from 2013 to 2016. In 2016, he was appointed as NAB Multan DG. In 2018, he was posted as NAB Headquarters DG Training. Awan was selected to serve NAB in 2013 after he topped the merit list. He was commissioned in the army in 1980 and retired as brigadier in 2011. He had received his master’s degree from Engineering University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. During his stay in Peshawar, Awan worked on several important cases and solved them. Now again he will be handling the pending cases of Malam Jabba, Billion Tree Tsunami, BRT, Bank of Khyber and Ehtesab Commission pending since long.