ISLAMABAD: Members of the opposition parties in the Senate on Monday submitted a resolution in the upper house of parliament, seeking immediate dismissal of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa.

The opposition parties have submitted five resolutions rec­ently, demanding the removal of heads of key state institutions for their alleged role in helping defend Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the hearing of the Panama Papers case in the Supreme Court.

“We have submitted five resolutions [so far]...to remove all controversial heads of state institutions,” PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Taj Haider told Dawn. He claimed that former Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman Zafar Hijazi had been removed on the basis of the opposition’s resolution.

The latest resolution carries signatures of over 40 senators, most of them members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Key senators of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Awami National Party (ANP), among others, were also signatories to the resolution.

It claims that Mr Bajwa was appointed in violation of Section 10 of the SBP Act 1956, which states: “No person shall hold office as governor, who is employed in any capacity in the public service of Pakistan or of any province of Pakistan or holds any office or position for which any salary or other remuneration is payable out of public funds.”

Mr Bajwa, who joined the Civil Services of Pakistan in 1981, served as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman and retired as secretary of the Economic Affairs Division and Finance on June 18, this year.

He was appointed the SBP governor via a notification on July 7. He was preceded by Ashraf Wathra, who retired on April 28, and Riaz Riazuddin, who served as acting governor until Mr Bajwa’s appointment.

Mr Bajwa was previously appointed director at the SBP while serving on the board of directors of the Bank of Punjab.

On Saturday, the PPP lawmakers filed a resolution in the National Assembly Secretariat calling for the removal of recently-appointed National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) president Saeed Ahmed, for his alleged involvement in money laundering. The PPP leaders alleged that Mr Ahmed had helped Prime Minister Sharif and his family launder money, and therefore, did not deserve to hold such an important office.

Mr Ahmed was appointed the NBP president in March. He had served as the deputy governor of the SBP since January 21, 2014.

Mr Ahmed had been summoned by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing charges of money laundering against the prime minister’s family. He had, reportedly, appeared before the JIT after the investigators complained that he had not been cooperating with them.

The opposition has also raised serious allegations against other heads of state institutions including National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Tariq Pasha and Mr Zafar Hijazi.

“They were misusing their authority, committing forgery and tampering official records to save Mr Sharif,” PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said.

He stressed that while the PTI and the PPP did not have a formal alliance in this regard, they had supported each other in the demand for removal of `controversial’ heads of state institutions.

The grounds mentioned in the resolutions submitted by the opposition parties are mirrored in the report submitted by the JIT in the Supreme Court.

The PTI had earlier filed a reference against the NAB chairman in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) demanding his removal after the Supreme Court found that he had been protecting PM Sharif in over two dozen cases lodged with the bureau.

The party has also raised serious allegations against the FBR chief for altering the revenue and tax records of the members of the Sharif family.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017