Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah’s plan to get Justice (r) Bhagwandas appointed NAB chairman seemed to go awry on Thursday when the Cabinet Division struck from the cabinet agenda a proposal to make amendments in the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) Ordinance.
According to details, Shah contacted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to get the retired judge and former chairman of the FPSC appointed NAB chairman.
According to reports, Dar agreed to help remove legal hurdles in the appointment and so a draft amendment was prepared for this purpose. It provided that a former chairman of the FPSC could be appointed to a government position even before the completion of the two-year period after his retirement.
However, when a retired bureaucrat and a legal expert was asked for his opinion, he said if the law was amended to benefit an individual, it would be challenged in the Supreme Court. As a result, the proposal was dropped from the cabinet meeting agenda thus almost ending Bhagwandas’s chances of becoming NAB chairman.
Justice Bhagwandas remained chairman of the FPSC for three years and under the ordinance, its chairman or any member cannot be appointed to a public office before the expiry of two years period after retirement.
