ISLAMABAD: National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB) Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal has decided to separately study corruption cases against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders Dr Asim Hussain and Sharjeel Memon to ascertain whether any ‘injustice’ has been done to them during investigations.

Presiding over a meeting held to review the overall performance of the bureau’s prosecution division at the NAB headquarters here on Monday, the chairman directed the officials concerned to present the case history of the two PPP leaders.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah recently accused NAB of badly treating the two PPP leaders. He regretted the way Mr Memon was arrested last week and alleged that Dr Asim was tortured while in custody.

However, the NAB chairman said that he would make a decision on merit and that people would not be discriminated against on the basis of their political affiliation. “When I was acting chief justice of Pakistan I believed in ‘justice for all’ and now when I head NAB I believe in ‘accountability for all’,” he added.

Javed Iqbal says he believes in ‘accountability for all’

Experts, however, believe that fulfilling the promise of ‘accountability for all’ will be an uphill task for the newly appointed NAB chairman, especially in NAB’s handling of corruption cases against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and members of his family. It is still anybody’s guess as to what treatment Mr Sharif will receive from NAB when he will return home to face corruption references the bureau has filed against him on the directives of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case.

An accountability court has issued bailable arrest warrants for Mr Sharif, who is likely to appear before it on Nov 3.

The NAB chairman said the bureau had adopted a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ against corruption, adding that through constant deliberations, monitoring and performance analysis of NAB’s prosecution division, the overall conviction ratio had gone up.

Justice Iqbal assured NAB officials that he would personally assess their performance and protect their rights and asked them to work diligently and without any fear.

He said NAB was the only anti-corruption organisation which had prescribed a maximum time limit — from complaint verification to investigation and finally to a reference in the accountability court — for expeditious disposal of all cases, including white-collar crime cases.

Appreciating the performance of the bureau’s prosecution division, he said no discrimination would be done to the two PPP leaders.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2017