ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court three-member bench on Wednesday expressed its annoyance with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) performance in Balochistan. While hearing a case against Balochistan’s former food minister Asfandyar Kakar, the SC said it seems like NAB is facilitating corruption in the province with its poor performance.
Justice Dost Mohammad commented that NAB has been delaying the cases of important nature for a long time.
Commenting on the poor performance of NAB Balochistan Director General Irfan Mangi, Justice Faiz Essa said he should be made a co-accused in the case because of his dismal performance. Justice Mohammad, however, said that due to Mangi’s involvement in the Panama Leaks JIT, he could not be included in the case against the former food minister.
NAB has been misusing its power and the only way to fix it is to open cases against them, the judge added. “Those who take salaries from the taxpayer’s money are abusing the law,” Justice Essa said.
NAB has not completed a single trial in 30 days; Rs 701 million were stolen but NAB remained in sweet slumbers, Justice Essa remarked. NAB has made fun of country’s judicial system; people who were caught “red-handed” are being released, he said.
Kakar was granted bail against a surety of Rs 5 million. Kakar was arrested by NAB in the high court premises in March 2017 after Balochistan High Court rejected his bail plea. Kakar was accused of embezzlement of over Rs 2 billion during the government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) while he was serving as a food minister in the provincial cabinet of former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani.
