KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq has reiterated the demand that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman should be appointed by the superior judiciary. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said that the chief justice of Pakistan and chief justices of all high courts should be given powers to appoint the NAB chairman. He criticised the bureau, saying: “Instead of ensuring accountability, the NAB was a facilitator of corruption and corrupt individuals.” He said that a chairman of the bureau was recently sacked on corruption charges and the next chairman was yet to be appointed. Haq stressed that it was the right time for both the government and the leaders of the opposition to handover the powers of appointing the NAB chief to the judiciary, as this would remove the influence of politicians and government officials from the institution. Haq said that the JI would continue its campaign against corruption and corrupt individuals and reiterated his demand to hold all those mentioned in the Panama papers accountable. “We want the supremacy of law, merit and the constitution”, he remarked. Talking about the issues in Karachi, he said that the city had been badly been neglected and highlighted up the city’s water woes as an example. Haq said that water shortage used to be an issue in Karachi but the situation had been made worse with the emergence of contaminated water and that out of 118 samples of tap water across the city, 88 were not fit for human consumption. Haq stressed that the problem should be taken up on all levels of government. He lambasted both the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for what he called an abysmal performance of both political parties in the city, and asked the MQM-P to show where it had used its powers and funds to improve the life of the Karachiites. He said that the JI always stood with the masses and that he would approach the judiciary to seek basic facilities for Karachiites. Responding to a question, the JI chief said that the articles 62 and 63 were part of the constitution and that no one would be allowed to repeal these articles. “The articles 62 and 63 of the constitution should equally be implemented on judges, generals and bureaucrats,” he added. He demanded that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi should highlight the human rights violations in Myanmar and Indian-held Kashmir on all regional and international forums. Published in Daily Times, September 19th 2017.