Report on mega scams: NAB tried to malign government: Rashid

Says no institution has the right to defame anyone

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) recent report which highlighted the corruption cases against the country’s top leadership, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid on Wednesday said no institution has the right to defame anyone without proof.     

Talking to media persons outside the Parliament House, he said an accountability of NAB should also be held for registering baseless cases against respected political leaders.

Read: 150 mega scams: Sharif brothers, Zardari feature in NAB report

“The NAB was created to eradicate corruption from the government institutions but in the days of dictatorship, it was used for witch-hunt of political opponents,” he said.

He said the purpose of the recent NAB report was to defame the political leadership of the country.

“The NAB has tried to malign the popularity of the elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was voted to power by 180 million people of Pakistan for the third time in 2013 elections, Shahbaz Sharif who has been elected chief minister of Punjab for the third time and Ishaq Dar, who has revived crisis-ridden economy of the country,” he said.

Rashid said the track record shows that the NAB has failed to play an effective role in eradication of corruption from society. “It also failed to bring to book the corrupt elements,” he added.

He said a housing society, a university and a hospital have been constructed on piece of land where the NAB alleged that Sharif brothers built a road from Raiwind to their family home.

“If the road was not built how the residents of the housing society, patients in the hospital and the university students would reach their destinations,” he questioned.

Read: ‘Economic terrorism’: PTI demands briefing on mega scams

Rashid called for legislation under which the prosecution will have to prove charges within stipulated time. “If in a case, the prosecution fails to prove the charges within 15 years the case should be withdrawn,” he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2015.