ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has called for resignation of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal after his admission in the Supreme Court that the bureau cannot adjudicate and finalise a corruption reference within 30 days.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, PPP Information Secretary and MNA Dr Nafisa Shah said the report submitted by the NAB chairman in the Supreme Court on Saturday was actually a “confession” about “incompetence and failure” of the bureau.

The PPP leader issued the statement a day after NAB submitted a report on behalf of the chairman in the Supreme Court, conceding that with 1,226 pending references, current strength of accountability courts and workload, it is impossible to adjudicate and finalise a corruption reference within 30 days.

The report was submitted in the Supreme Court which is seized with a suo motu case regarding delay in trials in accountability courts in the light of Section 16 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, which asks for deciding corruption matters within 30 days.

The suo motu proceedings were initiated when Justice Mushir Alam requested the chief justice on Jan 8 to constitute a special bench and initiate suo motu proceedings over the delay in prosecuting the accused in trial courts.

In her statement, Dr Shah said the NAB report admitting its failure to finalise cases within the given timeframe was also a proof that the bureau had been involved in carrying out media trial of opposition leaders and parties.

Dr Shah said the NAB report submitted in the Supreme Court clearly showed that the main objective of NAB was to humiliate and insult opposition parties. She said that NAB had accused opposition leaders of being involved in corruption of millions of rupees, but it had failed to prove anything so far.

She said that NAB started investigations after arresting opposition members. On the other hand, she said, there were a number of people in the government who also faced charges of corruption, but they were neither arrested nor investigated.

Dr Shah alleged that NAB was responsible for destruction of the economy as no one was ready to make investment in the country due to its actions.

The PPP leader called for immediate release of all those politicians and other people who were facing false and baseless charges and political victimisation by NAB, including party leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah.

She condemned the double standards of NAB for its actions against politicians, traders and people from other segments of society and called for immediate resignation of the NAB chairman.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2020