Politically motivated cases can be sent to Parliament; says NAB Chief

Chief National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Admiral (Retd) Fasih Bokhari has offered to send politically motivated cases to parliament, hinting at a similar proposal to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

While giving a briefing to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he was of the opinion that the bureau couldn’t alone close politically motivated cases.

He noted, “NAB has been used in the past as political tool against opposition parties … there were certain cases initiated in the past under political pressure that NAB cannot close on its own”.

His remarks at a time when NAB has reopened inquiries into graft charges against the Sharif Brothers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The bureau chief further said that the watchdog while handling complex cases was under extreme pressure from the media, courts and political parties and was having trouble.

He remarked, “Parliament did not approve the NRO, but these cases could be passed back to parliament for a decision. There was some essence of corruption in these cases and they could be prosecuted but NAB did not want to proceed as these cases were politically-motivated”.

He said that he could share recommendations of the committee he had constituted to look into politically motivated cases. He, however, said he will share such details in an in-camera session.

Later, the committed order the bureau to take action against former NAB chairmen Lt Gen (Retd) Khalid Maqbol and Lt Gen (Retd) Munir Hafeez for allegedly misusing their powers. It added that the two officials had been awarded LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) quotas when NAB was investigating the LPG case.

The Public Accounts Committee criticized NAB for being careless when it came to investigating former military officials. Why three former military generals were not apprehended in a land scam involving a golf course despite sufficient evidence against them, the members of the committee raised questions.

Fasih Bokhari, however, contended that NAB’s mandate was limited to putting people behind the bars.

He remarked, “Military is not covered under the NAB ordinance. The management of the Royal Palm Golf Club had already agreed to pay an additional Rs16 billion to Pakistan Railways and the deal would soon be presented before the Supreme Court for endorsement”.

Commenting about another case involving three military generals, the NAB chief said the army itself decided to initiate case against them.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Aug 2 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.