In an interesting development, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday was informed by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) that one of the key prosecution witnesses in a graft reference against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has been removed from service.
This came to fore after NAB sent a ‘notice of readiness’ to NADRA Operations Director Syed Qaboos Aziz—who is one of the 28 prosecution witnesses in the case. He was directed to be ready to record his statement, along with necessary documents, in connection with the reference pending before an accountability court.
The NAB notice said: “You are a prosecution witness in the reference; hence, you are requested to be available for recording of evidence, along with the necessary record, in this month on short notice.”
In its response, NADRA informed that the officer had been ‘separated from service’ and that he might be contacted at his residential address. The authority also informed NAB that, for any other assistance, it had appointed Ghazali Zahid as the focal person on behalf of the authority.
Two days after Aziz submitted the record of members of Dar’s family to NAB, his service was terminated.
It was clarified by NADRA that Aziz could appear as a witness before the accountability court; however, for any further assistance, the authority had appointed a new focal person.
It is crucial to mention here that he was appointed as the focal person after NAB asked NADRA to assign a senior officer to courier by hand to its investigators the information about Dar’s family. The information was needed in connection with investigations regarding the reference filed on September 8.
But, on August 23, he was handed a termination letter without assigning any particular reason.
Aziz had joined NADRA in 2001 as a database administrator.
A source has suggested that Aziz might file an application against his termination from service with the monitoring judge of the Panama Papers case Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
