Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Malik Ahmad Khan on Saturday demanded the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal to resign over the latter’s controversial interview to a columnist.

“We will file a case against NAB chairman and the columnist [over the controversial interview],” he told a press conference here, and stated that allegations against PML-N president and Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif have been made without any evidence. “He should not have been arrested in Saaf Pani and Ashiana cases,” he said, adding that Shehbaz Sharif has also demanded setting up a parliamentary committee to probe the matter.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, however, stated that the demand of resignation from NAB chief is not the party’s official viewpoint. Distancing the party from the resignation call made by the PML-N member, Aurangzeb asserted that asking NAB chief to step down is a personal opinion of the party member. “Party President Shehbaz Sharif and Senior Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi have already given the PML-N’s official statement on the matter,” she added.

Earlier, PML-N MPA Malik Ahmad Khan announced to take the NAB chairman to a court for leveling ‘baseless’ allegations against Shehbaz Sharif in his interview. He asked whether NAB was an extrajudicial institution. “Why does the NAB think that no one is there to hold them accountable?” he asked, adding that whenever the bureau is asked about the reason behind arrests, it responds that it has some ‘secret documents’ against the detainees.

“Did Shehbaz Sharif transfer money abroad in Ramzan Sugar Mills case? Where is it written that NAB chairman can configure questionnaires himself?” he further questioned. He added that if NAB is to decide about national interests, then parliament should be locked down.

Earlier, Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz, in his media talk after appearing before an accountability court in Lahore, said his party’s stance on the matter of NAB chairman is clear. “It is PML-N’s demand that a fact-finding committee be formed in the assembly,” he said, adding that Shehbaz Sharif was arrested in the Ashiana scandal but nothing came out of it. “The government’s own report on the Peshawar Metro Bus has determined corruption amounting to the tune of $7 billion. Things cannot proceed the way they are in the present state. The opposition parties will unite for demanding clarification from him [NAB chairman]. These matters must be made clear, otherwise people will not accept this process of accountability,” he stressed.

Hamza stressed on the need to present facts to the general public. “NAB chairman’s post is not a joke, rather it is a constitutional position. The revelations made in the article are startling…a decision must be made on these issues first,” he said. “Pakistan is undergoing an economic meltdown, while the NAB is arresting traders and spreading fear and panic amongst the investors,” he said, while recalling a recent observation by the Supreme Court that the accountability watchdog “has not been doing its job, and that it needs to present evidence instead of just make arrests.”