ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has welcomed the proposal of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman should be appointed by the judiciary.

Talking to reporters after a meeting of the party’s core committee at his Banigala residence here on Monday, he said NAB could not become a “credible” institution without being given under the judiciary.

“We have been demanding for long that NAB should be made an independent institution under the Supreme Court. I welcome the statement made by the interior minister that the NAB chief should be appointed by the SC,” he said while criticising the bureau for its alleged failure to take action against what he called the corrupt mafia.

Flanked by PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and secretary general Jahangir Tareen, Mr Khan urged the Supreme Court to immediately constitute a new bench and hold on a daily basis hearing of the Panama Papers case, which his party and others had filed against the prime minister and members of his family.

PTI chief welcomes Nisar’s proposal of NAB chief’s appointment by judiciary

During an informal chat with reporters last week, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had described the plea bargain deal recently struck by NAB with a senior bureaucrat of Balochistan as tantamount to letting thieves go off scot-free. He called for the NAB chief to be appointed by the judiciary.

His remarks about the highly controversial deal reached between NAB and former finance secretary of Balochistan Mushtaq Raisani, who is facing charges of corruption of billions of rupees, are significant as these are first such remarks made by a minister.

At present, head of the accountability institution is picked by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of opposition in the National Assembly.

“How can NAB be independent if its chairman is to be appointed by government and the opposition,” the minister argued.

The PTI chief said Chaudhry Nisar’s statement proved that besides the opposition and people, even the government had no trust in NAB as an institution. “The rise in corruption in the country is a clear proof of the bureau’s failure to perform its duties.”

“NAB is promoting corruption in the name of plea bargain,” he said and asked: “How can NAB independently function when 12 cases against [Prime Minister] Nawaz Shairf have been pending before it.”

The PTI chairman said people were looking towards the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case. He said it was a decisive case for Pakistan as its outcome would decide if the country had become a real democracy or it would continue to be “run by the corrupt mafia”.

Mr Khan said all participants of the recent public meeting in Swabi raised their hands when he asked them if they believed that Nawaz Sharif had committed corruption. On the other hand, the same people said they did not believe that the prime minister would be convicted in the Panama Papers case.

“This is the state of affairs in the country,” he said. “People are unable to understand why the case is taking too much time.”

He again accused the prime minister of lying on the floor of the National Assembly as well as in the SC.

The PTI chief also criticised the government’s decision of placing regulatory bodies under the control of line ministries and said that his party might challenge the decision in court.

Replying to a question about the possibility of joining hands with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he said everyone was waiting for Dec 27. “Let’s see what the PPP decides,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2016