On Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) blocked the investigation of serious allegations against the director general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding the strip searching and filming of a female suspect by the most powerful parliamentary committee, the Public Accounts Committee.
After hearing preliminary arguments in Shahzad’s plea, Justice Aamer Farooq issued notice to the PAC secretariat and halted any further disciplinary action against NAB DG Saleem Shahzad.
In a related incident, the NAB DG testified before the PAC and informed the member parliamentarians that he still testified before the committee to exhibit his bona fides and his respect for the committee even though he had a court order in his favour.
As he fought back against the allegations, the official said that the woman had been involved in immoral acts and had been booked in roughly 40 instances across multiple districts, and that he had been wrongfully pulled into the harassment case as a result of an application filed by her. The man claimed that Tayyaba Gul was to blame for his harassment.
Gul filed a petition with the same court, asking the acting chief justice to include her as a necessary party in the suit filed by the NAB DG. On the following date, the court has instructed her attorney to present the case.
While testifying before the PAC on July 7, complainant Gul claimed that she was subjected to inhumane treatment by not only NAB chairman Javed Iqbal and NAB DG Saleem Shahzad, but also the Prime Minister’s Office, which she claimed had gained personal gains by blackmailing the NAB hierarchy by misusing a high-profile compromised video.
Gul claimed that retired major Saleem Shahzad, the director general of the NAB, arrested her in Islamabad and brought her to Lahore, where he searched her without clothes and filmed the ordeal. She said the Prime Minister’s Office had used a lewd video to push the NAB chairman into ending investigations.
The PAC then called in the DG, instructed the NAB chairman to suspend him and his team, and told the anti-graft watchdog to reopen the investigations that had been stopped due to the alleged extortion.
However, after a preliminary hearing, Justice Farooq restrained the PAC from taking any adverse action against the DG despite his having approached the IHC against PAC direction.
Zahir Shah, the acting head of the NAB, has also filed a challenge with the IHC, questioning the PAC’s authority to order the reopening of closed cases.
Mahnur is MS(development Studies)Student at NUST University, completed BS Hons in Eng Literature. Content Writer, Policy analyst, Climate Change specialist, Teacher, HR Recruiter.
