ISLAMABAD: In a major reshuffle in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), five of its directors general were transferred on Thursday, including the watchdog’s regional heads posted in Lahore and Sukkur who were called back to the headquarters.

Arguably the most significant development is the transfer of the bureau’s director general for Lahore, Shahzad Saleem, who remained in the headlines in recent years for proactively pursuing alleged corruption cases of former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, his brother and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and their family members.

Under the reshuffle, Mr Saleem has been posted as head of the bureau’s Awareness & Prevention (A&P) Division based at its headquarters.

Mirza Muhammad Irfan Baig, who was similarly quite active in investigating cases of alleged corruption of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders, including former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, has been transferred from the post of director general for Sukkur and posted as director general of Training & Research (T&R) Division.

Seasoned bureaucrat has been posted as director general for Lahore region

A newcomer in the NAB hierarchy but a seasoned bureaucrat — Jamil Ahmed, who was waiting for posting at the bureau’s headquarters — has been posted as director general for Lahore region.

Mr Ahmed, a former federal secretary with experience of serving on a number of key positions, was inducted into the bureau about a month ago.

When contacted, the NAB’s spokesman termed the reshuffle a “pending matter” as no changes had been made in the bureau in the last three to four years.

He said the bureau’s new director general for Lahore, Jamil Ahmed, had a long experience of working with law and justice departments and had taken charge of his fresh assignment on Thursday.

While working as chairperson of the Benami Adjudicating Authority in Federal Board of Revenue, Mr Ahmed gained tremendous experience of firming up and implementing anti-benami legal frameworks for curbing white-collar crimes as well as institutional development under the Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 2017, sources said.

The position provided him with ample opportunities for understanding the nature and manifestation of white-collar crimes, mechanism for parking of illicitly obtained wealth in the garb of benami properties and holdings as well as tactical aspects of investigation, prosecution, recovery and confiscation of benami properties.

Mr Ahmed, who joined the Civil Service as a District Management Group (Pakistan Administrative Service) officer in 1986, also served as home secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan, officer in charge of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council, secretary of the Federal Tax Ombudsman, secretary of the public health engineering department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, federal secretary of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, and joint secretary (monitoring) at the PM Secretariat.

Under the reshuffle, Mirza Sultan Muhammed Saleem, who was serving as director general of the T&R Division, has been posted as director general for Sukkur region.

Director general of the A&P Division Mansoor Alam Khan has now been transferred to the Operations Division at the bureau’s headquarters.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021