Daily Times

The government Wednesday appointed former director general National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Brigadier (Retd) Musaddiq Abbasi as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability.

According to a notification, Abbasi will replace former adviser Mirza Shahzad Akbar who resigned from the post on January 24.

A notification by the Cabinet Division, said: “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 93 of the Constitution […], the president, on the advice of the prime minister, has been pleased to appoint Brig (retired) Musaddiq Abbasi as adviser to the prime minister on accountability and interior with immediate effect.”

Earlier in the day, the President Arif Alvi also accepted the resignation of the former SAPM. The cabinet division issued a notification in this regard after the president’s approval.

“I have tendered my resignation to PM as Adviser. I sincerely hope the process of accountability continues under [the] leadership of PM IK as per PTI’s manifesto. I will remain associated with the party [and] keep contributing as a member of the legal fraternity,” Akbar wrote on Twitter.

A former deputy prosecutor for the NAB, Akbar was appointed as the special assistant to the prime minister on accountability in August 2018.

Later, in December 2019, he was also given an additional portfolio of adviser to the prime minister on interior affairs. In July 2020, the barrister was promoted as adviser to the prime minister on accountability and interior with the status of a federal minister.

Media reports had claimed that the premier had lost faith in Akbar, who had – in the prime minister’s view – failed to take the corruption cases against the Sharif family and others to their logical conclusion. “Akbar had assured the prime minister that he would bring back the laundered and looted wealth within the first three years of the government’s term,” a media report had quoted a source close to the prime minister as saying.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle had begun to criticise the prime minister for his failure to put corrupt former rulers behind bars or recover the wealth they had allegedly stashed abroad.

However, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry later said that Akbar had worked under “tremendous pressure”. “Taking action against mafias is not easy, but the way you worked and handled the cases is admirable. More important work is now awaiting you,” he had said.