PML-N calls for Parliament to form new anti-graft body

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday called for a new accountability body to be formed by Parliament — a day after the Supreme Court released a scathing verdict into the Paragon Housing Society case regarding the National Accountability Bureau’s “utter disregard for law”.

Addressing a news conference, PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique — flanked by Khawaja Asif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ahsan Iqbal — said: “NAB should be abolished [...] The opposition and government should legislate for a new accountability body. There is no atmosphere of justice in NAB,” he said.

Justice Maqbool Baqar had reprimanded the anti-graft watchdog in a detailed, 87-page ruling on Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique’s bail plea in the Paragon Housing case over various actions and processes, saying its “conduct throughout this case is a clear manifestation of their utter disregard for law, fair play, equity, and propriety”.

“I was losing hope with [the] justice [system], but this decision is a beacon of light [for me],” Rafique was quoted as saying by Geo News. Rafique also said Khursheed Shah, Jang Geo Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, Hamza Shahbaz and Ahad Abbasi are “prisoners of conscience”.

Taking over the press conference, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the decision clearly states that the NAB “is not in the [best] interest of the country”. The government should form a consensus over abolishing the anti-graft body, he said, adding that the “hollowness of the accountability drama” in Pakistan had been revealed.

He questioned how the “NAB is quick to grab hold of the opposition but is blind to the corrupt ones sitting in the government”. “The opposition is thrown in jail for years,” he said. “The NAB chairman has served as a judge. He knows what his next step should be,” Abbasi added. When he spoke, former foreign minister