Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Saturday hinted at dropping Justice (r) Bhagwandas name for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) head’s slot. He said another name would be proposed if there were reservations against the proposal made by him.
“Chairman NAB should be non-controversial. We will give another name in case of reservations,” said Shah while addressing reporters at Parliament House via telephone. His retreat showed that the party leadership agreed to the media reports suggesting that under the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) rules, its chairman cannot be appointed as head of any institution.
However, Shah, the soft-spoken politician known for his political prudence in handling complex political situations, came down hard on the PML-N leadership for delaying the All Parties Conference (APC) on counterterrorism policy formulation, saying that this (delay) reflected that the government had failed. “There should not have been delays in calling the APC. But the government has not yet contacted the parliamentary leaders of political parties,” he said. Shah also took the government to task for leakage of the Abbottabad Commission report, calling for a through probe into the matter.
“The (Abbottabad) commission’s report has been made viral but no reaction has come from the government. This (leak) should be investigated. Nation needs to know what are the designs behind this leak,” he asserted. The PPP leader also criticised the government for arrest of former Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) chief Tauqir Sadiq, saying that political vendetta should not be settled through NAB.
