ISLAMABAD: The Law Division and the Establishment Division have refused to rescue the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a case of controversial appointments in the bureau which is being heard in the Supreme Court as both divisions have shown their reluctance to become part of a committee formed to check such appointments.

A senior official of the Establishment Division told Dawn on Sunday that a team of the division met NAB Deputy Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar and refused to become a part of the committee.

Similarly, the Law Division has shown its reluctance to become a part of the committee.

Officials of the Establishment Division were of the view that the division could not scrutinise appointments in NAB because, according to them, it was solely the bureau’s internal matter and that NAB did not fall in the purview of the division and the government’s service rules.

A NAB spokesman said he was not aware of the two divisions’ stance on the issue. But, he said, the recently announced committee had representatives from both divisions. “Senior officials of the joint secretary level from the two divisions are members of the committee,” he added.

Now, it seems, NAB will have to fight its case alone and take its own action over the controversial appointments.

Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali took suo motu notice over the alleged illegal appointments in NAB on Aug 17.

Interestingly, besides the Supreme Court the issue is also being taken up by the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice. The committee has directed NAB to come up with category-wise details of the appointments and present its report by Tuesday (Oct 25).

The committee will meet again on Nov 3.

Talking to Dawn, the Chairman of the standing committee, Farooq Naek, said that NAB had to provide a list of its officials by Oct 25. “I am in Lahore for lawyers’ elections and I hope NAB would have provided such details to the committee or it will submit it by Monday.”

The Senate committee directed NAB to provide a list of its employees, including retired army personnel, to ascertain whether any violation of the Supreme Court’s order regarding deputationists was being committed.

Now NAB has to categorise its employees in four categories — its original employees, those inducted on deputation, those who have been absorbed and those who are working on contracts.

The committee has been discussing for the past few months the issue of appointments of some senior officers in NAB in violation of rules.

The issue had been referred to the committee by Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on June 14 after PPP’s Saeed Ghani informed the house that some NAB officials, who had earlier been working on “acting and current charges” in higher scales in violation of rules, had now been reappointed on “Own Pay Scale (OPS) basis”.

Mr Ghani had alleged that the NAB chairman, through a letter on May 20, first “recalled” all those people who had been given “current and acting charges” on higher grades and later on the same day, he issued another notification appointing them again on OPS basis.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid had admitted that a number of NAB officers had been appointed on “acting or current charges” in higher grades in violation of rules.

The bureau was formed by former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in 1999 and given an autonomous status. Some retired army officers who were appointed by the Musharraf regime are still working with NAB.

Published in Dawn October 24th, 2016