Opposition submits motion against NAB in Senate

Accuses top graft buster of human rights violations, victimising political opponents

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition parties have moved a motion in the upper house of the parliament against the alleged human rights violation and acts of reprisal committed by the country’s top graft buster – the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Leader of the Opposition Senator Raja Zafarul Haq – who belongs to the PML-N –moved the motion when the new Senate session – which was requisitioned by the opposition – started on Friday.

Haq said due to NAB’s actions there is likely to remain a discordant and chaotic situation in the country and the political atmosphere will remain tense. He said a person accused of corruption is first dishonored in the media even before the start of his trial.

“To defame people and put them behind bars [without proper investigation or trial] is not the right way.

“We don’t want to protect any person who has committed a crime. However, not only the common people but also the Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared NAB actions one-sided.

“We demand that the matter of NAB actions be sent to the relevant parliamentary committee,” he said.

Referring to the recent arrest of former foreign minister Khawaja Asif, Haq said everybody knows how NAB arrested the key PML-N leader. “Khawaja Asif was in the middle of a meeting when he was informed that some people wanted to meet him outside. He was arrested when he went to see them.”

Talking with reference to NAB notices issued to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazulr Rehman, Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who belongs to the JUI-F, said: “We would prefer to be hacked into pieces rather than appear before NAB investigators.”

“Maulana is an open book. He says if NAB wants to arrest him it can but he will not appear before NAB investigators. We don’t give a damn about the law that is being used to humiliate politicians,” the JUI-F leader said.

Addressing himself to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Haideri said: “Why do you always say that the army stands by you. Why are you discrediting the army by dragging it into politics? The government cannot be run by hiding behind the army”

Taking the floor, Leader of the House Senator Shahzad Waseem said NAB could be traced back to the Ehtesab Bureau which was established during the PML-N’s second tenure.

“NAB is being criticised despite the fact that its incumbent chairman was not appointed by the PTI government. NAB is an independent and autonomous institution which is taking forward the accountability process without any political pressure,” he said.

Taking a jibe at the PML-N, he referred to the Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case in which the apex court had apparently described the PML-N leaders as Sicilian mafia. “Everyone is supposed to follow the law and no one is above the law,” he added.

Minister for Communication Murad Saeed accused the opposition of using NAB, the parliament, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and other institutions to protect their ill-gotten money.

Hitting out at the opposition, Saeed said NAB is neither responsible for the Panama Papers scandal nor the use of Calibri Font in a forged letter that the PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz submitted to the apex court during the Panama Papers case hearing.