ISLAMABAD: The second senior-most position at the National Account­abi­lity Bureau (NAB) fell vacant on Monday after Deputy Chairman Zahir Shah resigned, citing personal reasons.

Just days earlier, on Saturday, NAB Prosecutor General Asghar Haider had also tendered his resignation.

The resignation of two top officials within three days has raised many eyebrows, but NAB is keeping mum on the matter and there was no official word on why the two key men have resigned, especially at a time when the Sup­reme Court is expected to announce its judgement in a case challenging amendments made by the previous PDM government to the National Accountabi­lity Ordinance.

The amendment clipped NAB’s wings by proposing that all cases involving an amount below Rs500 million would not come under its purview.

In an amendment to section 19E, NAB’s authority to allow surveillance with the help of a high court has been withdrawn.

Moreover, NAB cannot take cognisance of cases that may come under the ambit of other investigation agencies.

A source in NAB told Dawn that Zahir Shah cited personal reasons in his resignation, which he presen­ted to the NAB chairman.

The resignation will be forwarded to the federal cabinet for final acceptance, the source said.

Zahir Shah was one of the founding members of NAB, which was formed by former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in 1999.

He had served as director general of NAB for many years and was made deputy chairman in Octo­ber 2021, when former deputy chairman Hussain Asghar had resigned.

Though there were speculations about the reason for his sudden resignation, NAB’s PG Haider had also termed his departure “quite normal”.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2023