July 06, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 9, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, July 5: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) on Wednesday blasted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials for their undue occupation of residential quarters in Lahore, originally meant for the official use of the members of the parliament.

In a statement, central information secretary of the PPP Sherry Rehman expressed her shock at the “arrogance” of NAB Chairman Lt-Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz and his officials, and said the double standards of the government’s official witch-hunters had been exposed.

The PPP leader said NAB had been occupying Chamba House in Lahore since the military coup in 1999, without paying a single paisa for rent currently amounting to Rs40 million. It had been using 50 suites of the Chamba House, including six VVIP suites, for keeping detained politicians, mostly from the major opposition parties the PPP and the PML-N, for interrogation.

The NAB officials reportedly lived in the VVIP family suites, Ms Rehman said. She criticised the NAB chairman’s absence from the Senate Committee on Housing and Works meeting held on Monday to discuss the issue, saying it only showed the hypocrisy of the so-called accountability gurus, who were not ready to be held accountable for their own illegal acts. “How can the NAB chairman be above all laws, and above answering to parliament,” she asked.

“What kind of message is this sending to the people of Pakistan, who after having elected their representatives see them as virtually helpless in the face of a corrupt and power-hungry elite establishment, which refuses to obey the laws it uses to victimise its political opponents?”

Ms Rehman said the government made tall claims about accountability and transparency, but they fell flat in the face of the “bullying” by the NAB, which, despite several reminders, had refused to take responsibility for its unlawful occupation of Chamba House, and was not prepared to vacate it.

She said it was high time that “notorious” departments like NAB were wound up and replaced with an accountability setup that was both even-handed and unafraid of holding all members of the ruling establishment accountable.