ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday appointed NAB’s former deputy prosecutor general Mirza Shahzad Akbar as his special assistant on accountability.

Mr Akbar served the National Accountability Bureau during the government of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.

A notification issued by the cabinet division said: “In terms of rule 4(6) of the Rules of Business, 1973, read with serial number 1A of Schedule-VA of the said rules, the prime minister has been pleased to appoint, with immediate effect, Mirza Shahzad Akbar as special assistant to the prime minister on accountability, with the status of Minister of State.”

Mr Akbar came into the limelight after filing a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking the registration of an FIR against former station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for carrying out a drone attack that killed a man in the Mirali area of North Waziristan.

He was the counsel for petitioner Abdul Karim Khan who lost his son, Zahinullah, who was watchman at a government girls school, and a brother Asif Iqbal, a primary schoolteacher, in the CIA drone attack that took place on Dec 31, 2009.

Recently, Mr Akbar had also filed a petition against a US diplomat over a fatal road accident.

US diplomat Colonel Joseph Emmanuel Hall trampled to death a young motorcyclist and injured the pillion rider when he did not stop his car on the traffic signal at the intersection of Margalla Road, Islamabad, in April this year.

Meanwhile, federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry told a press conference on Monday that Mr Akbar would lead a committee to be constituted to recover the wealth stashed abroad.

The committee comprises officials of NAB, FIA, FBR, interior ministry and the ministry of foreign affairs, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018