SC says NAB authorised to arrest suspect without prior notice

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–Apex court also hopes NAB won’t abuse its powers

 

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was authorised to arrest anyone without prior notification if it had solid proof against the accused.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh issued the written order explaining the NAB’s arrest powers. The order was in connection with an appeal the court heard on March 19. The appeal was filed by NAB against an individual named Syed Jalil Arshad and another person, regarding an order given by the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2016.

The bench said if the bureau had solid proof against any accused, there was no condition of prior notice for his arrest.

In the written order issued on Wednesday, the court noted that the concluding lines of the LHC order “may be interpreted to imply that NAB cannot arrest an accused without informing him first”. However, it found that, after examining the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, no such limitation has been imposed on the accountability bureau.”Needless to say, if sufficient material has been gathered to connect a person to the commission of an offence, obviously NAB can arrest such a person,” the apex court clarified.

The order said that they do not expect the accountability bureau to misuse such power and added that the civil petition had been disposed of following the observation.

The decision comes amid strong criticism of NAB officials by bureaucrats, current and former government officials.

Recently, Brigadier (r) Asad Munir committed suicide. He left behind a note, lamenting disrespectful treatment meted out by the NAB. “With one exception, all other investigating officers in my case were incompetent, rude, arrogant, untrained; knew little about the working of the department they were investigating,” he wrote.

The retired army officer urged the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice of the anti-graft watchdog officials’ conduct “so that other government officials are not convicted for the crimes they had not committed.”

On March 21, CJP Asif Saeed Khosa took notice of the suicide note left behind by retired Pakistan army brigadier and intelligence officer Asad Munir and sought a reply from National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal in the matter.