—Inquiry committee report points out blatant violation of NAB rules during appointments, promotions
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is headed towards tough times after a three-member committee headed by Establishment Division Secretary Maroof Afzal successfully unearthed illegalities, contraventions and violations in the appointments/promotions of 21 officers of the anti-graft body.
The copy of the Maroof Afzal-led committee report formed by the Supreme Court (SC) has pointed out violations of NAB rules and its promotion policy. In addition, the 21 officers appointed or promoted in the anti-graft watchdog had not submitted their professional experience certificates, especially in the field of criminal inquiry. It merits mention here that all these officers were appointed during 2000 to 2003.
In 2017, these officers have been issued show cause notices from the committee. In a bid to fulfill the requirements, these officers obtained their experience certificates from various departments, including Agriculture Department, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Physical Planning and Housing, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Karachi Port Trust, Education Department, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and others.
Similarly, serious violations of promotion policy and service rules were committed while promoting an officer Major (r) Saleem Shahzad from grade 18 to 20. The committee had issued show cause notice to Shahzad but the officer submitted a written reply and decided against appearing before the committee.
The report also stated that violation of NAB service rules TCS and promotion policy was committed in the promotion of Saleem Shahzad from grade 18 to grade 20. Saleem Shahzad was appointed as deputy director in grade 18 in 2003. After three months, Shahzad was promoted to grade 19, even though it was necessary for a grade 18 officer to spend seven years in NAB before being promoted to grade 19. The blatant violation of the rules continued when Shahzad was promoted to grade 20 after spending just five years in the anti-graft body.
Per NAB’s rules and promotion policy, it was necessary for an officer to spend 12 years in NAB service to be eligible for promotion from grade 18 to grade 20. An immunity was illegally granted to Saleem Shahzad in ACR quantification and PER while to ensure his illegal promotion. The committee would hold a review in this connection.
Although the committee had called for a review of the promotions of seven top officers of NAB, including Saleem Shahzad, it had interestingly chosen to maintain silence over the condition of appointing officers who had master degrees and the relevant experience.
Moreover, due to the order of the Supreme Court, the committee had stopped the investigation against NAB Director General (DG) Irfan Naeem Mangi, despite issuing a notice of inquiry to him. Besides, the inquiry committee had submitted its report over the illegalities, contraventions, and violations in the appointments/promotions of 21 officers of the anti-graft body with the apex court.
According to the report, the committee had passed on the matter of verification of experience certificates of said officers to NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal. The chairman would decide the fate of these officers after verifying their experience certificates issued by different government departments.
Further, the committee had also sought the record of grade 20 officers Mirza Sultan Mehmood, Ateequr Rehman, Farman Ullah, Fiaz Ahmed Qureshi, Masood Alam, Altaf Bawani, and Mirza Sultan Saleem as their experience record was not available with NAB.
The inquiry committee called for a review into the promotion of grade 20 officers, including Raza Khan, Abdul Hafeez Khan, and Mujahid Akbar Baloch. It also called for a review of grade 19 officers, including Zafar Iqbal Khan and Ghulam Farooq. In addition, the committee had recommended the removal of Mubashir Gulzar from service.
Official sources at the Establishment Division said on the condition of anonymity that former director generals of the anti-graft watchdog, including Alia Rasheed, Burhan Ali, Tariq Mehmood and Shabir Ahmed, were removed from service after a committee headed by a former Establishment Division Secretary Tahir Shahbaz called for their removal from NAB.
