ISLAMABAD: The process of appointing serving military officers in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has resumed with the induction of four senior army officials as the anti-graft watchdog grapples with added workload.
The inductions were made days before NAB filled the key positions of deputy chairman and prosecutor general.
According to Establishment Division notifications issued on Oct 10, Brig Mohammad Khalid (Infantry) has been appointed as director (BS-20), Lt Col Nadeem Muzaffar (Intelligence Staff College) has been inducted as an additional director (BS-19), Maj Waleed Khalid (Military Intelligence) as a deputy director (BS-18) and Maj Qais Kamran Syed (MI) as a deputy director (BS-18) on secondment basis.
The notifications stated that these officers will remain in NAB till further orders. A source in the bureau said more army officers were likely to be inducted soon.
After the Supreme Court struck down the amendments made by the PDM government to the NAB law, over 1,800 cases were reopened.
But the anti-graft watchdog didn’t have enough officers to deal with the added load of cases as over 30 NAB officers were already sent to other departments on deputation during the past 10 months, a source told Dawn.
Following the departure of the officers who were assigned to NAB on deputation, there was a need for personnel in the areas of forensic audit and investigation, and tax matters. NAB’s Intelligence and Vigilance Cell (IVC) was previously headed by a serving intelligence officer, but a number of officers who had been serving on deputation were sent back to their parent departments after the government clipped the watchdog’s powers.
Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2023
