NAB now following federal minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan

ISLAMABAD: NAB has now started following Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan. Additional Director (Staff) for Director General NAB Muhammad Saleem Ahmad Khan recently wrote a letter to Rawalpindi Administration for provision of details about the properties of the federal minister and his family.

According to the letter, the NAB is presently in the process of complaint verification against Ghulam Sarwar Khan. The Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), Rawalpindi, has been asked to provide “record relating toagriculture, residential and commercial properties/ land/ plots, purchased/ owned/ sold” in the name of Ghulam Sarwar Khan and members of his family.

The “confidential” letter also contained five names of the ministers of the family alongwith their identity card numbers. The Rawalpindi administration has been told to provide the required information through concerned Patwari to the Investigation Officer, NAB Rawalpindi.

This development will be upsetting for the Imran Khan government, which has been told that NAB is also collecting some information about Punjab senior minister Aleem Khan, who was jailed by the Bureau once and recently got back in the provincial cabinet. Aleem Khan spent few months in jail and was released on bail by the LHC.

Although at the federal level, few PTI leaders and even ministers are in NAB’s focus, the Bureau has so far shown restraint to arrest anyone of them. The opposition parties complain that NAB is sparing the government ministers and ruling party leaders while targeting the opposition party leaders by involving them in wrong cases. The opposition also alleges that there is a nexus between the government and NAB.

However, the fact is that NAB has opened files of alleged corruption against several ruling party leaders and ministers. Generally, politicians, bureaucracy and the media question the credibility of NAB and its working but the Bureau claims that it works on merit and as per the law.

NAB also contradicts of being used for political victimisation. Superior judiciary in its several observations and orders have also expressed its no confidence in the working of NAB and even talked about the alleged use of institution for political engineering.

There are many even in the PTI government who express their reservations to working of the NAB. It is feared that if NAB law is not amended, the Bureau may be used one day against the Imran Khan government.

Of late, the government coalition partners, including PML-Q leaders, criticised NAB for opening decades old inquiries against the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. Not only the PML-Q leadership approached the LHC against NAB’s alleged abuse of power but they are asking their senior government partner- the PTI- as to who is using NAB against them.