ISLAMABAD: After mind boggling for days , the legal brains of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government reached to a final consideration here on Tuesday that the ordinance was the only silverline available to dodge the rule of law to retain the most controversial and chacterless retired justice, Javed Iqbal, as National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman.
Incumbent NAB chairman’s 4-year term in office is going to complete on October 7, 2021.
To ensure the rule of law in the country, the prime minister was supposed to consult in advance with the opposition leader in the National Assembly (Shahbaz Sharif) to appoint a new NAB chairman . But since , the PTI government wanted to retain the incumbent NAB chairman for reasons better known to it, its legal team started to issue statemens much earlier noting since Shahbaz Sharif was a NAB accused he can not be consulted on appiontment of new NAB chairman.
Information minister , Fawad. Hussain Chaudhary, repeated the same rant on NAB chairman’s appointment while briefing the media on the decisions taken by the federal cabinet here on Tuesday.
He categorically said ” Our position vis -a -vis NAB chairman’ appointnent is very clear the government will not consult with Shahbaz Sharif as he himself is an accused”.
He announced the government will issue an ordinance to extend tenure of NAN chairman .
Since PTI does not want to bring in any new NAB chairman it will keep on issuing new ordinance on expiry of the last one and the same churning game may continue till PTI completes its 5-year term in 2023. The government plan to cover illegal retention of the incumbent NAB chairman is likely to face legal hurdles in coming days as none of the opposition parties is ready to accept Justice (R) Javed Iqbal as NAB chairman.
Former prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced soon after Fawad Chaudhary’s press briefing that in any case retention of Javed Iqbal as NAB chairman will be illegal and unconstitutional. Pakistan People Party (PPP) also announcdd to move the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) against possible retention of incumbent NAB chairman.
