Misconduct, criminal offence: Govt to take action against NAB officers, Senate told

ISLAMABAD: The government gave an assurance in the Senate on Thursday that action would be taken against National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officers found to have committed misconduct and criminal offence by covering up matters in the recent past.

The treasury and opposition members named their favourite cases like BRT, Malam Jabba, Ring Road, Billion Tree Tsunami, Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, Dubai and WikkiLeaks and questioned the NAB performance.

Minister of State for Law Senator Shahadat Awan, during the question hour, gave the assurance and said the PTI rulers used to announce not to spare anyone and put them in jail and that they would do the NAB job. He said no one would be spared and there would be no favourite while dealing with corruption cases and that every penny illegally gotten in making a 2KM road would be recovered.

Replying to supplementary questions, the minister said they would also like to review the present set-up of the NAB, if it was found to be a burden on the government. Referring to reports on unaccounted for recoveries and citation of ex-advisor Shahzad Akbar, who allegedly through Hundi sent money abroad and then brought it back in the form of remittances in the name of various persons, PPP Senator Jam Mahtab Hussain asked if the government would take any action on this.

He proposed that the matter be referred to the Senate Committee on Law or a ruling be given by the chair. To this, the chair referred the matter to the committee concerned.

Replying to questions on appointment of judges, particularly in the superior judiciary, Leader of the House and Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar agreed with the senators that until the appointments were not on merit, there would not be any change in the justice system for improvement.

He pointed out that there was an objection from lawyers’ bodies that with the 19th Amendment, the balance had been disturbed, as along with the chief justice of Pakistan, four additional judges were also made part of the panel on appointment of judges.