LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Prosecutor General Syed Ehtesham Qadir Shah on Monday informed the Lahore High Court (LHC) that a show-cause notice had been issued to a prosecutor for not appearing at a previous hearing of a contempt petition against the chairman of the anti-corruption watchdog.

Asked about the absence of the NAB chief, Mr Qadir told a two-judge bench that the chairman had just returned from abroad on Saturday; therefore, he (the prosecutor general) personally appeared to assist the court in the matter.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, had summoned NAB Chairman Nazir Butt for failing to decide an application seeking an inquiry against former federal minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and his brother former provincial minister Hashim Jawan Bakht on charges of accumulating illegal assets.

Addressing the prosecutor general, Chief Justice Neelum observed that NAB always causes delays, its lawyers often do not appear in courts and if they do, they merely seek adjournments.

Prosecutor General Shah stated that a show-cause notice had been issued to the prosecutor who failed to appear at the last hearing. He further stated that the case in hand had already been disposed of by the Supreme Court and NAB had already submitted its reply to it.

The bench adjourned the hearing, summoning the lawyers of both sides for final arguments on Sept 18.

Ahsan Abid, a lawyer from Rahim Yar Khan, had filed the petition, pleading that a LHC two-judge bench on Oct 7, 2024, had directed NAB to decide, within three weeks, his application for an inquiry against the Makhdoom brothers. However, he said, the order had not been complied with by the bureau.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2025