Will govt continue with incumbent NAB chairman?
ISLAMABAD: The incumbent Chairman NAB, Justice (R) Javed Iqbal, is completing his ‘unextendible’ four-year term on October 8 with no sign of the initiation of a process of consultation between the prime minister and leader of the opposition to pick his successor.
There is still no word from the government on whether it intends to continue with Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal or wants a new NAB chief.
According to official sources, the government could issue an ordinance to extend the tenure of Javed Iqbal as in the case of the prosecutor general NAB. Or it could approve the draft NAB rules, pending before the government, to continue with the incumbent chairman for an indefinite period.
However, legal experts insist that there is no valid or legal way forward except appointing a new chairman or offering another term to the incumbent chairman through parliamentary legislation. Depending on an ordinance or rules which conflict with basic legislation would be controversial legally and could be declared illegal by a court of law in the light of its past decisions.
With the retirement of the chairman NAB and in the absence of a new NAB chief, the Bureau’s functioning would come to a standstill.
Senior lawyer and former Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Raja Amir says that if the PTI government allows the chairman NAB to continue on the basis of an ordinance, such legislation would not stand the test of judicial scrutiny in the light of the SC’s order in the Ch Nisar Ali Khan vs the Federation of Pakistan case. Amir said that in the absence of a chairman, NAB could neither arrest any accused nor file a reference or initiate investigations against anyone. According to an official source, in case the government decides to continue with the incumbent chairman without giving him a full term it could rely on the draft rules as were prepared by the Bureau and submitted to the government last year for approval. The draft rules remain pending with the government.
It is, however, said that the framing of such rules which negate legislation could be immediately challenged and invalidated through the courts.
Following the Supreme Court’s intervention, NAB in 2020 had prepared draft rules, which were not only submitted before the apex court but also forwarded to the government for approval. The draft rules, which were prepared following the Supreme Court’s intervention, have not yet been approved and notified by the government. The draft rules remain chairman-centric making him more powerful than before. The draft rules are also devoid of defined parameters or checks on the alleged abuse of power by the NAB chief to issue arrest warrants on his whims and fancies. Although the NAB law sets an unextendible four-year term for the NAB chairman and a three-year term for the prosecutor general, these rules allow both the appointees to serve beyond their statutory term, which makes the draft rules illegal.
Section 6(b) of the NAB Ordinance 1999 reads: “There shall be a Chairman NAB to be appointed by the president in consultation with the [Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly] for a [non-extendable] period of [four] years on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the President and shall not be removed except on the grounds of removal of a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”
Justice Javed Iqbal was appointed chairman NAB on October 8, 2017, following a consensus between the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah.
