Without raising objections against the personality of Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari, National Assembly Opposition Leader Nisar Ali Khan rejected on Thursday President Asif Ali Zardari’s proposal to nominate the former navy chief for the post of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman on “legal and technical grounds”.
Nisar conveyed his rejection by a two-page letter sent to President Zardari, in which he stated that a purposeful consultation process was not adopted by the president in nominating the new NAB chairman. “Chaudhry Nisar did not raise objections to Fasih Bokhari but he disapproved of the president’s proposal on legal and technical grounds claiming that the mechanism adopted by the president in nominating Bokhari was unconstitutional,” a source in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said.
The source said Nisar had adopted the stance that the president’s nomination of Bokhari was tantamount to just informing the opposition leader, which could not be termed ‘purposeful consultation’. He said further in the letter that the nomination was against Supreme Court verdicts. “The opposition leader has given references of Supreme Court verdicts in petitions of Asfandyar Wali, Harris Steel Mills, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Mubashar Hassan,” the source said. The opposition leader proposed in the letter that a serving or retired judge of the superior courts should be appointed NAB chairman, the source added.
President Zardari had proposed Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari for the NAB chairman position on October 9 and had written letters under Section 6(b)(i) to the leader of the house and leader of the opposition for their comments.