ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile Syed Naveed Qamar on Tuesday expressed his dismay over failure of the NAB authorities to present former president Asif Ali Zardari in the meeting of the committee despite issuance of his production order.

At the outset of the committee meeting, Mr Qamar regretted that despite issuance of the production order of Mr Zardari, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had not produced him.

Mr Zardari, who is in NAB custody in connection with the fake bank accounts case, is undergoing treatment at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and the doctors say that he requires complete rest.

Mr Qamar, who also belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said if Mr Zardari was unable to attend the meeting on health ground, even NAB should have informed the committee about it in writing. He said NAB had not only breached the privilege of Mr Zardari, but that of the whole committee. He announced that he would move a privilege motion in the National Assembly against NAB for non-compliance of his orders.

Meanwhile, sources in the PPP told Dawn that when the NAB authorities had informed Mr Zardari about his production order, he himself refused to attend the committee meeting due to his poor health. The sources said that there was a possibility that Mr Qamar might not move the privilege motion against NAB as it could backfire.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2019