Contesting: LHC orders Senate panel takes up MCB privatisation issue

Saeed Ghani asked NAB to obey the orders of the SC which had ordered it to complete the inquiry within four months

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Standing Committee discussed on Thursday the issue of National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) inquiry report on privatisation of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB).

The meeting of the committee was held here under Senator Saleem H. Mandviwala.

Senator Saeed Ghani was of the view that the committee itself had raised the matter of MCB’s privatization after which the NAB had started an inquiry into the issue.

The DG NAB informed the committee that the Lahore High Court had ordered to stop the MCB inquiry and also exempted Mian Mansha from appearing before NAB.

Saeed Ghani asked NAB to obey the orders of the Supreme Court which had ordered it to complete the inquiry within four months. The chairman of the committee, Senator Mandviwala, said that it seemed that NAB was not serious in completing the inquiry.

The NAB representatives said that the bureau had worked hard in this regard and it also managed to dig out the record from warehouses of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in Karachi.

He pointed out that if somebody managed to get a stay order, NAB had no other option but to put the inquiry on hold. Senator Kamil Ali Agha suggested that the committee should write a letter to NAB and the Law Ministry to file a petition before the Supreme Court against the high court’s decision.

NAB’s representatives said that the Privatization Commission and Finance Ministry had not submitted replies to the High Court for six months. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.