ISLAMABAD –National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal has conveyed his willingness to meet the desiring opposition members of National Assembly (MNA) any time of their choice next week.
In reply to a letter written by certain MNAs expressing their desire to meeting the chairman, Justice Javed said he was ready to meet the legislators as he respected the Parliament and Parliamentarians, said a press release issued on Thursday.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, retired justice Javed Iqbal, has great respect for parliamentarians and is ready to have a meeting with the National Assembly members belonging to the opposition parties, which have expressed reservations over the ongoing accountability process, said a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/nab-approves-inquiries-investigations-against-ex-pm-shahid-khaqan-abbasi-and-others/
In December last year, a letter was sent to the NAB chairman by lawmakers of the National Assembly belonging to the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).
The letter was signed by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah Khan of the PML-N; Syed Naveed Qamar and Shazia Marri of the PPP and Asad Mehmood and Shahida Akhtar Ali of the MMA.
Through the letter, the members have drawn the NAB chairman’s attention towards “harassment and victimisation” of the opposition by the bureau. It stated: “These arbitrary, unjustified and unprecedented actions of NAB only serve to undermine the process of democracy in Pakistan.”
Through the letter, the lawmakers sought an appointment with the NAB chief, asking him to provide them an “opportunity to apprise him of this grave and urgent situation”.
Since last year disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case and his conviction by an accountability court in Avenfield reference, the opposition parties have been pointing the finger at NAB for ‘victimisation’. However, since the arrest of PML-N president and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif in Aashiana housing scam in October, the opposition have adopted an aggressive posture against the bureau. The opposition parties have twice requisitioned the NA session with the agenda of seeking discussions on “use of NAB as a tool for political coercion” since then.
