NAB chief must quit after top court judgment, says Bilawal

Ag APP

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday called on Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to step down as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after a scathing Supreme Court verdict criticised the anti-graft body’s bias in the Paragon Housing Society case.

Bilawal’s remarks came a day after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) demanded the formation of a new accountability body. According to Geo News, the PPP chairman said at a press conference: “Our first step should be to end NAB and shut it down as it is a scar on the legal system of Pakistan.”

He added: “NAB chairman, who was a judge at one point, should resign if he has any honour or had read the judgment. If the highest court in this country has put it out there then we cannot leave it just here. Parliament should act at once.” He added that NAB should “clarify” itself as the Supreme Court ruling said that it was not taking actions against the government’s mega corruption cases. “The Bureau should launch an investigation into the foreign funding case, BRT, Billion Tree Tsunami cases, special assistants’ assets declaration and dual nationality cases at once,” Bilawal said.

The PPP chief said if his party had made such a declaration then they would have been “facing assets beyond means cases and the media would have declared us as traitors”. “If our system is two-faced, how can he [NAB chairman] come and say accountability will be done from head to toe?” asked Bilawal, calling for an end to the “joke” that was being played with Pakistan.

Reacting to the press conference, information minister Senator Shibli Faraz tweeted that Bilawal’s call to disband NAB was allegedly meant to give the opposition “free reign to loot people”.