Aftab Sultan appointed NAB chairman

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Thursday approved the appointment of former director general of Intelligence Bureau (IB) Aftab Sultan as Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Following the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif through video link from Lahore, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, briefing the media, said that credibility of Aftab Sultan was beyond doubt. He expressed his confidence that the new NAB chairman will make the watchdog impartial in checking corruption in the country.

The Ministry of Law also issued a notification regarding Aftab Sultan’s appointment for a period of three years. The NAB chairman slot had been lying vacant since the last month when Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal quit following the expiry of the ordinance that extended his tenure.

The sources said PMLN leadership managed to convince other government allies which were opposing the appointment of Aftab Sultan, a senior retired officer of the Police Service, as the NAB chairman.

The cabinet was informed that the name of Aftab Sultan was finalised after consultations between the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly. The cabinet was also apprised that the appointment of NAB chairman as per the National Accountability Act, 2022, would be for three years which could not be extended. It may be pointed out here that Aftab Sultan also served as Punjab Police IG and later he was appointed as DG IB and was holding the same post when the PTI staged the 2014 sit-in in Islamabad.

Earlier, the newly-appointed NAB chairman also served as DG IB during the tenure of then prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. A NAB reference was also approved against him and he remained a co-accused with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif over alleged irregularity in purchase of vehicles in the name of Saarc conference. The NAB did not file the reference. Former foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry was also a co-accused and they were facing charges of causing a loss of Rs1.95 billion to the national exchequer.

Rana Sanaullah, while further briefing newsmen, said the federal cabinet also took notice of the baseless and unfounded allegations levelled by PTI chief Imran Khan against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja. He said the cabinet lauded the performance of CEC for holding transparent, credible and peaceful by-elections in Punjab.

The interior minister maintained that the PMLN did not believe in sale and purchase of votes adding that it was Imran Khan and his party that massively used money and aircraft to buy members’ loyalty just after the general elections of 2018. The meeting on recommendations of the Ministry of Trade also okayed Multi Model Air-Road Corridor for Afghan Transit Trade.