ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday reviewed corruption cases of high-profile personalities, including top politicians and bureaucrats, and decided to file appeals in relevant courts against bail granted to the accused.

Politicians who are facing NAB cases are from the opposition as well as from parties that are government allies.

Prominent politicians whose cases were reviewed by the anti-graft watchdog include former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif, Shaukat Aziz, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, former chief ministers Shahbaz Sharif, Aslam Khan Raisani, Sanaullah Zehri and Qaim Ali Shah as well as the incumbent Sindh chief minister, Murad Ali Shah.

The other politicians included Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Dr Asim Hussain, Ahsan Iqbal, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Sarwar Khan, Noorul Haq Qadri, Dr Zafar Mirza, Babar Khan Ghouri, Manzoor Wassan, Agha Siraj Durrani, Syed Khursheed Shah, Jam Khan Shoro, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Adil Siddiqui, Waseem Akhtar, Sardar Ashiq Gopang, Barjees Tahir, Ejaz Jakhrani, Rana Sanaullah, Sabtain Khan, Abdul Aleem Khan, Sahibzada Mehmood Zeb, Sher Azam Khan, Engineer Amir Muqam, Capt Mohammad Safdar, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Usman Saifullah, Anwar Saifullah, Asfandyar Kakar, Asim Kurd, Saadat Anwar, Rehmat Baloch, Hamza Shahbaz, Suleman Shahbaz, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz, Ahad Cheema, Fawad Hassan Fawad, Amjad Ali Khan, Siddique Memon, Manzoor Kaka, Shahidul Islam, Uzma Adil, Saeed Ahmed Khan, Tahir Basharat Cheema, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Anwar Majeed, Hussain Lawai, Ghulam Mustafa Phal, Farkhand Iqbal, Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, Kamran Lashari, Ghulam Sarwar Sindhu, Murtaza Malik, Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, Kamran Shafi, Mufti Ehsan, Ghulam Rasool Ayubi, besides the accused in cases concerning Bank of Khyber, Malam Jabba, billion tree tsunami, K-Electric and NTS, fake housing/cooperative societies and sugar mill managements.

Watchdog reviews cases involving senior politicians

The meeting, which was chaired by NAB chairman Javed Iqbal, was also attended by the bureau’s deputy chairman, Hussain Asghar, prosecutor general accountability, DG operations and DGs of all regional bureaus through video link.

According to NAB headquarters, retired Justice Javed Iqbal said the bureau was strictly pursuing the policy of accountability for all.

“NAB has no affiliations with any political party, group or individual but has true affiliations with the state of Pakistan,” he added.

He said NAB officers were performing their duties to eradicate corruption from the country, considering it their national duty.

“The meeting decided to file appeals in relevant courts against decisions on bails after getting certified copies of bail from the respected relevant courts,” a press release issued by NAB said.

It was mentioned that Bus Rapid Transport case was in the Supreme Court, in which NAB was not a party.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2020