ISLAMABAD, March 2: The members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday took exception to the absence of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman from the meeting and directed him to ensure his presence in the next meeting.

The committee also deferred the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2005 (Ordinance No.22 of 2005) due to absence of NAB Chairman Lt-Gen (Retd) Shahid Aziz, says an official handout issued at the end of the meeting presided over by Ahmed Raza Maneka.

“The committee expressed displeasure at the absence of NAB chairman in the meeting and directed the authority concerned to ensure the participation of the NAB chairman in the next meeting,” says the handout.

Later, speaking at a news conference, People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Secretary-General and MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf, who is also a member of the committee, criticized the NAB performance and said that the bureau should be abolished, as it had failed to achieve any of the objectives.

Mr Ashraf said it seemed that the NAB chairman considered himself above parliament and above the law. He said a standing committee of the National Assembly had the full mandate of parliament and the NAB chairman was answerable to it. The PPP leader said NAB was only busy in “arm-twisting” of the opposition members and was carrying out character- assassination campaigns of the political opponents.

He said NAB had caused an irreparable loss to democracy in Pakistan by promoting horse-trading. He particularly lashed out at the bureau for wasting all its energies on tarnishing the image of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

About the meeting of the standing committee, he said the meeting had been convened to discuss and review the NAB Ordinance, which said that there should be two deputy chairmen of NAB.

He said the NAB chairman did not come to the meeting and sent an additional director, who failed to satisfy the members on the appointment of two deputy chairmen. He said the committee had decided to call the NAB chairman to attend the meeting and explain the reasons for the appointment of his two deputies.

Mr Ashraf called for shifting of all cases from NAB courts to the normal courts. He said NAB was only targeting the opposition politicians and not taking any action on the reports of corruption by retired and serving army officials.

He said NAB had not taken any action on the complaints against former Wapda chairman Lt-Gen Zahid Ali Akbar. “As NAB has lost its credibility, therefore, it should be abolished,” Mr Ashraf said.

Earlier, the members of the standing committee were informed that the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) had been running in losses and its privatization process was expected to be completed by June, this year.

The committee members recommended that if the government had decided to privatize the PCP, then its property in all the four provinces should be returned to the provincial governments for printing their secret documents.

Other who attended the meeting included Malik Allah Yar Khan, Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Alam Anwar, Onaza Ehsan, Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada, Faiz Tamman, Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair, Samia Raheel Qazi and Abid Ali Umang.