Preliminary hearing set: Pressure builds on NAB chief as SC accepts pleas

NAB officials say Qamar Zaman could be sent packing; preliminary hearing on Monday.

ISLAMABAD:

After hauling him before the country’s top anti-graft body for scrutiny, the Supreme Court on Saturday piled more pressure on Qamar Zaman Chaudhry by allowing two petitions questioning his appointment.

The court allowed two constitutional petitions, one by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, challenging Zaman’s appointment as chief of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A three-member bench comprising chief justice-designate Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry will hear the petitioners’ arguments fixed for preliminary hearing on Monday.

If convinced that the petitioners have valid grounds and it merited further hearing, the court would issue notices to all parties concerned.

“If convinced that the government violated the constitutional requirements for the appointment of NAB chief, it [the Supreme Court] would declare Zaman’s appointment null and void,” said a NAB official. He warned that the consequences would be serious, as the bureau’s chief would be sent packing if found to have been appointed with out following the stipulated procedure.

Zaman was appointed NAB chief in October this year by the government after multiple rounds of consultative meetings between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah.

The PTI chief in his petition maintained that the government did not consult all opposition parties before appointing him as chief. Zaman was also a sitting bureaucrat at the time of his appointment and was made to resign before going on to take up the NAB chief’s job, Imran argued. Zaman was already on indefinite leave facing a NAB inquiry on charges of “misuse of authority” and “creating hindrances” as interior secretary during investigations of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scandal. A contempt of court case was also pending against him in the Supreme Court.

Sources in NAB said the government and the leader of the opposition did not want Zaman to resign, despite his desire to do so, following the apex court’s decision in the NICL scam case earlier this month.

“He was asked to go on leave and face the investigations while keeping the office of NAB chief. He had delegated his powers to the deputy chairman,” said the NAB official.

In the contempt of court case, the NAB chief had already submitted an unconditional apology, however, the decision over its acceptance or rejection was pending. Officials said Zaman was safe in this case at least temporarily as the proceedings would take time.

It would take time for the NICL case inquiry against him to produce in findings. “That too was not as much a threat but in the case challenging his appointment, Zaman could be sent home sooner,” said a NAB official from the legal branch of the bureau.

Interestingly, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition picked Zaman as their mutually agreed choice for NAB chief while he was not even in the race. His name was preferred over the names of at least four retired judges of the superior courts. In the past, the SC has held the record of sending different NAB chiefs home. The latest was Admiral (R) Fasih Bukhari, whose appointment as NAB chief was declared null and void by the court in May this year. The then leader of opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had challenged his appointment on the grounds that the government had appointed Bukhari without consulting the opposition -- which was a constitutional requirement.


Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2013.