Top NAB official stripped of powers

Prime Minister Gilani finally managed to ‘assert’ his executive authority to strip a defiant top official of the...

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani finally managed to ‘assert’ his executive authority to strip a defiant top official of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Irfan Qadir, off his powers and privileges.

NAB Prosecutor General Irfan Qadir has been at the centre of a controversy ever since the Supreme Court ordered the government last week to remove him from office, declaring his appointment as illegal.

On Tuesday, the adamant official refused to vacate his office despite a verbal order by Gilani for his sacking. He challenged the premier’s authority to remove him under the NAB ordinance. “The prime minister, according to a NAB ordinance of 1999, cannot withdraw the prosecutor general NAB’s privileges,” he told The Express Tribune, adding that “Only the president can do that.”

However, Qadir could not resist the pressure from the premier for longer and relinquished his office on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the premier told The Express Tribune that all the state organs are bound to obey even the verbal directives by the prime minister and nobody can defy them. “The premier’s order is an order. Whether verbal or written, it has to be followed,” spokesperson Shabbir Anwar said.

PM Gilani on Tuesday ordered the Law Ministry to prepare a summary for the removal of the prosecutor general. Normally, this summary is moved by the Law Ministry to the PM secretariat and from there to the presidency, returning through the same route.

Anwar did not confirm whether the prime minister’s secretariat received this summary but added it was just a formality. Officials at the Law Ministry said they had finalised the summary. They, however, refused to confirm whether it was forwarded.

Irfan Qadir was the fourth high-profile official at NAB, the official accountability arm, whom the government had to remove from office on the Supreme Court orders.  Earlier, former chairman NAB Naveed Ahsan was also removed.

Respecting the orders of the Supreme Court, the prime minister has also removed prosecutor general Danishwar Malik and his deputy Baseer Qureshi in the recent past.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2010.