Supreme Court of Pakistan. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed anger over National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s attitude towards investigation— saying that no one in the country understood their policy of arresting or letting people off the hook.
“NAB would be friends with one accused and would arrest another one. No one can comprehend what policy they are following,” Justice Azmat Saeed said in his remarks while hearing the Modarba scandal.
During the hearing, NAB’s prosecutor said the accused of Modarba case was involved in embezzling Rs386 million and the bureau has already produced 36 witnesses to prove charges against him.
On this, this the judge said the accused had been languishing in jail for over two years now and asked NAB how much time it will need to wrap up the investigation.
Officers misusing their power ‘have no place at NAB’
“At times, the punishment is less than the time an accused has to spend in detention,” Justice Saeed said expressing anger over the course of the matter.
He further said that there were many reference pending before the court in which the accused have not been arrested while NAB has put many others behind the bar.
“No one knows who’ll be arrested on corruption charges,” Justice Saeed said.
The stance by the top court comes a few days after NAB’s newly appointed chairperson, Justice Javed Iqbal, cautioned his officers to ensure that they do not act against an innocent person, hurting their integrity, while not sparing the corrupt.
He had warned that any official found misusing his power, will have no place at NAB. “I will personally monitor the performance of all officials and I am sure a visible difference will be seen in the bureau’s performance in the coming months,” he added.
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