ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday appointed one of the five former judges whose nominations had been rejected a day earlier by President Mamnoon Hussain despite being sent by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and recommended by the law ministry for the slot of NAB prosecutor general.
Retired judge of the Lahore High Court Syed Asghar Haider was appointed NAB prosecutor general though a notification in this regard would be issued on Wednesday when the Supreme Court would resume the hearing of the suo motu case, a senior official told Dawn.
Interestingly, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar just a day ago had expressed surprise over the rejection of all the nominations by the president and asked the law ministry to record a statement on the issue on Wednesday. Mr Haider’s name along with those of Shah Khawar, Nasir Saeed Sheikh, Fasihul Mulk and Mudassar Khalid Abbasi was sent by NAB chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal. The president after rejecting the summary nominated three other persons for the slot.
While talking to reporters at Prime Minister Office on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi tried to evade the questions related to the controversy. He said: “In fact the appointment of PGA is made after consultation with the NAB chairman therefore sometimes such things happen during consultative process.”
According to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, “The President of Pakistan, in consultation with the NAB chairman may appoint any person, who is qualified to be appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court, as Prosecutor General Accountability.”
The post of PGA fell vacant on November 23, 2017 after the completion of the three-year term of former prosecutor general Waqas Qadeer Dar.Earlier, the government indirectly informed the NAB that it could not consider two of the probable-Nasir Saeed Sheikh and Fasihul Mulk as both of them were said to be over age though there is no such bar on age under the NAO-1999.
Currently, NAB is pursuing important cases against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his family members and former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
According to sources, important cases including Panama, Hudaibya etc are being heard in various courts without a senior prosecutor thus appointment of the prosecutor general was said to be very vital for the cases. According to the NAB, the bureau was facing difficulty in following its cases due to the absence of a prosecutor general.
Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018
