On Wednesday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) transferred 13 officers, among them the one who had raided the home of Hamza Shehbaz, a former opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, on suspicion of money laundering and receiving an income beyond his means.
In addition, the NAB also moved and posted top personnel in districts where by-polls were being held despite the Election Commission’s restriction on doing so.
Muhammad Asghar, an additional director of NAB Lahore, has been sent to NAB Sukkur. Mr. Ashghar entered the Shehbaz family’s Model Townhome in April 2019 to arrest Hamza, but he was rebuffed by his security personnel and party members.
After failing to apprehend Hamza, the NAB requested that the interior ministry add his name to the no-fly list and filed a police report against his guards for interfering with state business. The interior ministry later entertained the request.
The retired Justice Javed Iqbal left his position as chairman of the NAB on June 3, and the current chairman is now in charge. Following the expiration of a recently enacted ordinance that had authorised him to hold onto his position until the selection of a new chief, Mr. Iqbal had given up the responsibility.
The NAB chief’s tenure was extended indefinitely by an ordinance that was issued by the previous PTI administration. Despite having a “friendly” opposition leader in Raja Riaz in the National Assembly, the current Shehbaz government has yet to begin the process of naming the next NAB chief. According to the legislation, the prime minister and the opposition leader are consulted before the NAB chairman is chosen.
According to sources, the nine-party coalition government is not in a haste to make the new appointment because it was able to pass a measure in the National Assembly that rendered the watchdog, which PTI leaders called “toothless,” ineffective. The acting chairman of the NAB posted one deputy director and transferred 12 more directors on Wednesday. The additional directors, Mufti Abdul Haq, Aftab Ahmad, Muhammad Asghar, Nadeem Ahmed Shahid, Khawar Ilyas, Shahzadas Imtiaz Ahmad, Haroon Rasheed, Zahir Shah, Faisal Qureshi, Hina Saeed, Omar Khan, and Tariq Khan, travelled from Islamabad to Lahore, Karachi to KP, Multan to KP, Balochistan to Rawalpindi, Balochistan.
Saleem Ahmad Khan, Deputy Director, has been posted from Rawalpindi to Balochistan. Transfers and postings by the NAB followed a warning from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The ECP ordered the postings and transfers in the NAB to be immediately canceled last week after taking notice of them. Any transfers and postings were prohibited in the areas where the by-elections were being held, the ECP informed the NAB. By-elections for the Punjab Assembly seats are being held in Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi, and NAB has violated its (ECP’s) decision by posting and transferring officers from these regions.
