Due to delay in appointment of the new National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, thousands of corrupt government officials in BPS-17 and above, along with a number of culprits who cheated the public at large and are wanted by NAB, are enjoying the luxuries of life without having the fear of being arrested, as only the NAB chairman is authorised to issue arrest warrants for government officers in BPS-17 or above, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to the law, in absence of the NAB chairman, the deputy chairman is authorised to exercise powers of the chairman but the present NAB deputy chairman has been restrained from exercising these powers by the Supreme Court (SC). This situation is fully supporting a number of accused persons such as Robinson Paul, assistant account officer and pay roll processing officer, allegedly involved in illegal withdrawal of more than Rs 150 million under various adjustments headed by policemen and patrolling police in the Punjab Accountant General Office.
Paul is required by NAB Lahore but due to absence of the chairman, the investigation wing is still waiting for issuance of his arrest warrant from the competent authority. NAB Lahore has recently arrested Adil Saleem Tikka nominated in a fraud regarding transfer of property commonly known as Qasr-e-Zouk through fake documents. Before his arrest, the investigation wing of NAB in Lahore had to face a lot of problems to get arrest warrant of the accused.
The federal government had appointed Justice (r) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah as NAB chairman but the SC set aside the appointment and since then the post is lying vacant. In this situation, the NAB Investigation Wing is not able to perform its duties given in the NAB Ordinance. Besides this, due to non-availability of the NAB prosecutor general, a number of accused persons who want to enter into a plea bargain with NAB are also not being entertained properly because according to law, the prosecutor general is the only signing authority in this regard.
