ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has initiated probes against many senior officers of the Bureau, including director generals (DGs) who face corruption, misuse of authority, illegal appointments and fake degree charges.
The sources in NAB say that the chairman believes that NAB needs to put its own house in order because the officers facing charges are responsible for investigating corruption of billions of rupees against other Pakistanis.
Of late, the NAB chairman ordered an inquiry against Rawalpindi Director General Nasir Iqbal for illegally detaining a junior officer, Bilal Pannu, wrongly accusing him of leaking a picture of an accused to the media. The Rawalpindi DG NAB is also facing a corruption case in a housing scam relating to the Ministry of Commerce. The DG is on deputation in NAB from the Federal Board of Revenue and is reportedly a relative of secretary to prime minister.
NAB DG Human Resource Shakeel Malik is also facing a corruption case in NAB for allegedly having a role in a housing scam. Shakeel Malik belongs to the Secretariat Group and is on deputation in NAB. Malik also holds additional charge of DG Awareness and Prevention.
Moreover, the Supreme Court had also sought report on the alleged questionable degree of Lahore NAB director general from the chairman in connection with illegal appointments in the bureau case.
A petitioner had raised question on the educational certificate of Lahore NAB’s DG and claimed that DG’s degree was issued in 2002 in calibri font while the font was introduced in 2007. The DG claims that he had valid and attested educational degrees by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). NAB had issued show cause notices to more than 100 officials, including four DGs, in the illegal appointment cases a few months ago. On the recommendations of the committee, the court had declared the appointments of the then Lahore DG Burhan Ali, Quetta DG Tariq Mehmood, Karachi DG Shabbir Ahmed and DG (Awareness and Prevention) Aliya Rashid as illegal and ordered their sacking.
