ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and ex-premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday asked the government to dissolve the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and hold its employees accountable for “looting money and torturing people for years”.

Talking to the media, Mr Abbasi said proceedings against the PML-N leadership in NAB cases should continue and be telecast live to the public. “This way, everybody will know what kind of show is staged during these proceedings, and the people of Pakistan should be informed what kind of corruption has been committed,” he said.

He said installing cameras inside the accountability courts would expose the reality of NAB’s accountability drive.

The PML-N leader said there was only one solution for NAB — it should be closed down and its employees held accountable “as they have looted money and tortured people for years”.

Mr Abbasi alleged that NAB chairman Javed Iqbal “has treated everybody with cruelty, and now it’s time he and bureau’s officials who have been violating the law of the country and were involved in corruption should be held accountable”.

He claimed that the NAB chairman was “fully under control” of former prime minister Imran Khan, and said that he used to take instructions from the previous government.

“One minister used to sit in NAB chairman’s office and issued instructions to him for lodging fake cases, arresting people and defaming them,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2022