ISLAMABAD: The goverment has dropped Lieutenant general (Retd) , Bilal Akbar’s name as replacement of Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal, as National Accountability Bureau (NAB) top official, reliable sources said.
Bilal Akbar is currently serving in Saudi Arabia as Pakistan’s ambassador. The government was considering Bilal Akbar’s name for.the post of NAB chairman and appoint Khurrum Rathor as ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Now in the second thought, the government is planning to post general (Retd) Bilal Akbar as Pakistan’s ambassador to some other country most probably Hengry. Calling general (Retd) Bilal Akbar back from Saudi Arabia and appointing carear diplomat ,Khurrum Rathor, as ambassador to Saudi Arabia is a decided plan of the government. “Appointment of Khurrum Rathor as ambassador to Saudi Arabia is the first priority of prime minister, Imran Khan”, the sources divulged.
Mr Rathor is an experienced diplomat and has professional skill in diplomacy. He has served in different destinations of the world as ambassador of Pakistan. Currently, he is serving as a High Commissioner of Pakistan to Canada.
Prime minister Imran Khan has taken a decision in principle to replace Justice Javed Iqbal after facing bitter criticism from opposition on extension of incumbent NAB chairman. He is considering different names for the post.
The tenure of incumbent chairman NAB had ended up on October 7, 2021 and Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf instead starting a process of consultation with the leader of the house decided to retain the incumbent chairman NAB.
Javed Iqbal, who had lost his credibility as NAB chief due to his poor moral reputation, had made every possible attempt to secure extension from the sitting government. He had dropped many important and credible cases of misuse of power and embezzlement of the ruling elite to get support from the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) ranks to stay as NAB chairman. The PTI lobby too responded positively to his cunning move of dropping cases against its otherwise powerful ‘leaders’. The closure of the case of Malam Jabba against Defence minister, Pervez Khattak, was one of the glaring examples of his overdoing as NAB chairman. Despite a clear cut case of misuse of authority, Justice, Javed Iqbal, managed to close down the case of leasing out 275 acres of land to a selected party without following requisite procedure. NAB also could not find any reason as to why the cabinet of Pervez Khattak extended lease of hundreds of acres of forest land from 15 to 33 years to a handpicked party .
There are many other cases which NAB settled down without any legal and otherwise reason against top members of the ruling elite.
Requesting anonymity a senior NAB official said “I can refer a number of cases of corruption that Justice, Javed Iqbal, managed to settle against PTI elite just to secure extension in his tenure”.
Justice Javed Iqbal did get extension but he could not manage the opposition to spare him for his ‘services’. Both, Pakistan People Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) is not ready to digest extension to incumbent chairman. Meanwhile, Latif Qureshi, a retired banker and unionist, has moved Islamabad High Court (IHC) against extension granted to disgraced incumbent chairman.
