Around 80 percent of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) employees have expressed their reservations over NAB’s future as an institute owing to filing of an application by the federal government seeking an extension in the deadline until the decision on its review plea challenging removal of former NAB chairman Justice (r) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah, just a day before expiry of the deadline given by the Supreme Court (SC) for appointment of the NAB chairman, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The employees, who expressed concerns, were directly appointed in the bureau while the remaining 20 percent, who were appointed from other departments, are not as much worried because they believe that if NAB is abolished, they will go back to their mother departments. According to details, the SC had invalidated Deedar’s appointment after Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali submitted in court that he was not consulted over his selection, which was in violation of the constitution.
The federation filed a review petition against the decision nullifying Deedar’s appointment after the federal government manoeuvred to reappoint him as the chairman, but it has yet to be taken up for hearing. The SC on June 21, disposing of a petition challenging appointment of Javed Zia Qazi as NAB deputy chairman, ordered the federal government to appoint the new chairman and prosecutor general of the bureau within a month.
The federal government instead of appointing the NAB chairman and deputy chairman, filed an application in the SC submitting, “If the government appoints a new chairman and later finds that its review petition has been allowed, it will find itself in an awkward and embarrassing position of having appointed two chairmen, which is not permitted under the NAB Ordinance 1999. It is humbly prayed in the interest of justice that 30 days time granted by this august court vide judgment dated June 21, 2011, in Constitution petition No 29/11 to fill the vacant post of NAB chairman may be extended until such time that the review petition No 50/2011 is decided by this court”.
As a result of delaying tactics, a majority of NAB employees are facing an uncertain situation regarding the future of NAB as an institution. A vast majority of NAB employees think that as result of constitutional war between the SC and federal government, NAB could be abolished, as the SC had clearly mentioned that if the government did not appoint a new chairman and deputy chairman within a month then the bureau would be abolished.
