ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Aftab Sultan on Tuesday resigned as the chairman anti-graft watchdog, ARY News reported citing sources.
NAB chairman held a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who accepted his resignation, well-placed sources told ARY News.
Sources revealed that Aftab Sultan resigned from his office after “he was asked to do certain things which were not acceptable to him.”
Sources further disclosed that Sultan had some reservations over National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2022 which has limited the anti-corruption watchdog’s powers.
Aftab Sultan, former Director General (DG) of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), had been appointed as chairman National Accountability Bureau last year in July. He had replaced Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, who remained NAB chairman for four years and three months.
Sultan belonged to the police service and retired in BPS-22. He remained appointed to the top slots including as intelligence bureau (IB) chief during PPP and PML-N tenures besides also serving as DIG Sargodha during Pervez Musharraf’s period.
Read More: FORMER DG IB AFTAB SULTAN APPOINTED NAB CHAIRMAN
A NAB reference was also approved against him and he remained a co-accused with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif over irregularity in buying vehicles in the name of the SAARC conference. The reference also included Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry and they were blamed for causing a loss of Rs1.95 billion to the national exchequer.
However, the reference was approved in 2020 but was never filed against them.
NAB law
In May, the National Assembly approved amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in a bid to curtail the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The bill was tabled by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar who said that multiple amendments were made in the accountability Ordinance to clip the powers exercised by the accountability bureau.
Sharing details of the key amendments, he had said that after fresh amendments, no arrests could be made before completion of the investigation process, and the suspect would have the right to obtain bail. Moreover, 90-day remand period was also abolished.
“90-day remand is for terrorists, and we have now reduced the duration of remand to 14 days,” he said and added that no defamation campaign could be carried out unless the suspect is convicted in the case. The case could not be used for political purposes in the assets beyond means case, Tarar had informed lower house.
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February 21, 2023
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