PHC asks NAB to treat accused fairly

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) observed on Friday that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should also lay hands on big fish and not just focus on those involved in low level corruption.

“The NAB should continue its inquiry under the law and interrogate accused, but neither play with the self-respect of the suspects, nor harass them,” Justice Qaiser Rashid remarked during hearing of cases filed against the NAB.

“We have noticed in several cases that attitude of the NAB investigation officers with the accused is insulting. The NAB during investigation should treat the accused as accused, not convicts,” the judge said.

The bench passed the observations in four writ petitions filed by Ahmad Khan and others against the NAB through their lawyers Gohar Rehman Khattak and Akbar Khan. The lawyers said that the NAB first offered Voluntary Return (VR) to the accused and when their clients agreed for VR and submitted applications for the VR with the NAB chairman, the NAB was not accepting their VR now. They said the NAB wanted plea bargain with them, instead of VR, which they called an injustice with the petitioners. They said the NAB was now conducting raids on their houses and harassing them.

They said that after the NAB’s VR offer, the petitioners had taken loans from banks in millions, but the NAB was not accepting their VR. The court restrained the NAB from arresting the petitioners and issued a notice to the NAB.