Daily Times

Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani accused the federal government of blackmailing the NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal.

At a press conference on Friday, Ghani said that the Bureau’s head is being blackmailed by the government, which has a video of the NAB chairman.

The minister criticised the NAB chairman, saying that he was misusing the law.

“People have committed suicides due to the NAB chairman’s actions,” said Ghani. “If he is being blackmailed by the government then perhaps he should resign from the post,” added the Sindh minister.

He said that the anti-graft body was shielding PTI MPA Haleem Adil Sheikh, claiming that NAB was worried that Sheikh would be detained by the Anti-Corruption Establishment, therefore it started an investigation against the PTI leader to prevent his arrest.

Ghani said that the National Accountability Bureau had threatened him with grave repercussions. The PPP leader claimed he was unconcerned about the anti-graft bureau’s tactics and that he would respond in kind and “fight against the liars and deceivers”

He accused NAB of “illegally interfering” with the day-to-day affairs of the government, adding that the PPP had always said that NAB and the country’s economy, both cannot function together.

In response to a question, Ghani lamented the scuffle between NAB personnel and the PPP workers when the former arrived at the house of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s aide Ijaz Jakhrani to arrest him.

“Jakhrani, I am sure, did not ask [his supporters] to attack NAB personnel,” he added.

The minister said former president Asif Ali Zardari and PPP’s veteran MNA Khursheed Shah were being targeted for political reasons.

Ghani’s remarks against the Bureau were rejected by the NAB the day before, claiming they were not only false, unfounded, and misleading, but also an attempt to influence the cases of PPP leaders Syed Khursheed Shah and Jakhrani.

Ghani’s remarks against the Bureau were rejected by the NAB the day before, claiming they were not only false, unfounded, and misleading, but also an attempt to influence the cases of PPP leaders Syed Khursheed Shah and Jakhrani.

The NAB claimed it had filed two referrals against Jakhrani, Adviser to Chief Minister Sindh for Prisons, before the Accountability Court in Sukkur, and that his pre-arrest bail had been revoked in the third case on June 25, 2021.

It said “when the NAB Sukkur team reached the house of Aijaz Jakhrani in Jacobabad to arrest him, a large number of angry people attacked the NAB team, injuring the NAB officers besides damaging their vehicles.”