LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday transferred 13 officers including the one who had raided the house of then opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz on charges of money laundering and income beyond means.

Besides, the NAB also transferred and posted the senior officers in spite of the Election Commission’s ban on the same in the districts where by-polls are being held.

Additional Director NAB Lahore Muhammad Asghar has been transferred to (NAB) Sukkur. Mr Ashghar in April, 2019 had raided the Model Town residence of the Shehbaz family to arrest Hamza but returned after facing resistance from his security guards and party workers.

Following its failed bid to arrest Hamza, the NAB had filed an application with police to register an FIR against his guards for interference in state’s function and requested the interior ministry to put his name on the no-fly list which it later entertained.

Addl director, who raided Hamza’s house in 2019, among those reshuffled

The NAB is currently headed by its acting chairman following the departure of retired Justice Javed Iqbal on June 3. Mr Iqbal had relinquished the charge after the expiry of a recently promulgated ordinance which had allowed him to stay in office until the appointment of a new chief.

The previous government of PTI had promulgated the ordinance to extend the NAB chief’s tenure for an indefinite period.

The incumbent Shehbaz government has yet to initiate the process of appointing the new NAB chief despite having a ‘friendly’ opposition leader in the National Assembly Raja Riaz. Under the law the NAB chairman is appointed in consultation with the prime minister and the opposition leader.

Sources believe since the nine-party coalition government had got a bill passed in the National Assembly which made the watchdog, as described by PTI leaders, `toothless’, it is in no hurry to rush for the new appointment.

On Wednesday, the NAB acting chairman transferred and posted 12 additional directors and one deputy director. The additional directors – Mufti Abdul Haq, Aftab Ahmad, Muhammad Asghar, Nadeem Ahmed Shahid, Khawar Ilyas, Shahzadas Imtiaz Ahmad, Haroon Rasheed, Zahir Shah, Faisal Qureshi, Hina Saeed, Omar Khan and Tariq Khan, from Islamabad to Lahore, Lahore to Karachi, Lahore to Sukkur, Lahore to Islamabad, Lahore to Balochistan, Karachi to Islamabad, Karachi to KP, KP to Multan, Balochistan to Rawalpindi, Balochistan to Islamabad, Multan to Rawalpindi, and Sukkur to Lahore, respectively.

Deputy Director Saleem Ahmad Khan has been transferred and posted from Rawalpindi to Balochistan.

The NAB’s transfers and postings have come at the heels of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s warning. Last week, the ECP had taken notice of the postings and transfers in the NAB and ordered cancellation of the same at once. The ECP had told the NAB that it had banned any transfers and postings in the districts where the by-polls were being held. In Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi by-polls on the Punjab Assembly seats are taking place and NAB has transferred and posted the officers of these districts in violation of its (ECP) directive.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2022