Prime snub for PM

NAB Prosecutor-General ignored on Tuesday a directive by the PM and refused to vacate office despite SC orders.

ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a brazen act of disregard for the authority of the country’s highest functionary, a top National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law officer at the heart of a controversy ignored on Tuesday a directive by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, and refused to vacate the office he continues to occupy despite orders by the Supreme Court that he be removed.

NAB Prosecutor-General Irfan Qadir chaired a couple of meetings at the Bureau’s Islamabad headquarters even after Premier Gilani ordered the Law Ministry to withdraw perks and privileges he was so far enjoying.

Gilani moved into the storm to make an attempt to implement ‘explicit orders of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit’, his media office said in a statement issued here on Tuesday.

But his efforts to remove Qadir were frustrated by an argument by the NAB’s key official that only the president, not the premier, can order him to quit. “The prime minister, according to the NAB Ordinance 1999, can’t withdraw the NAB Prosecutor-General’s privileges,” he said. “Only the president can do that,” Irfan Qadir told The Express Tribune.

“I will not leave office until written orders are handed over,” he said, asserting that he is only bound by orders issued by the president.

Gilani directed the law secretary that, in compliance with the apex court orders, Irfan Qadir should cease to hold office forthwith. Moreover, observing the stipulated period of 30 days as per the NAB’s rules, it has been decided to appoint a new chairman soon after Eid-ul-Fitr, the statement by Gilani’s office added.

Sources in the law ministry say that Law Minister Babar Awan will announce the formal removal of Irfan Qadir under the president’s direction at his office on Wednesday (today).

A late-night meeting between the law minister and Law Secretary Muhammad Masood Chishti gave the final touches to the move as well as other legal issues. “The government will implement the SC decision,” Law Secretary Masood Chishti told The Express Tribune. “An important strategy will also be announced today,” he said. The strategy will deal with the crisis of the appointment of a new chief of NAB and its prosecutor general, he added.

Meanwhile, well-known lawyer Ikram Chaudhry said that all institutions are duty bound to implement the Supreme Court’s order as Article 190 of the Constitution says: “All executive and judicial authorities throughout Pakistan shall act in aid of the Supreme Court.”

The statement of the PG NAB is unlawful and against the spirit of the Constitution as well as the spirit of the NAB Ordinance, he said.

Earlier the previous chairman of NAB, Naveed Ehsan was removed on the orders of the Supreme Court. In compliance with the orders of the apex court, the prime minister also removed Prosecutor General Danishwar Malik and Deputy Prosecutor General Baseer Qureshi in the recent past.

It may be recalled that a three-member bench of the Supreme Court had declared unlawful the appointments of NAB’s Acting Chairman Javed Qazi and Prosecutor General Irfan Qadir.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.