Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: All the three top guns of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Chairman Admiral (R) Fasieh Bukhari, his deputy chairman and the prosecutor general, as well as the contractual appointees in the bureau have no future in the proposed Accountability Commission and thus will lose their jobs with the enactment of the draft law for the new commission.
According to NAB sources, as per the draft law that was shared with the bureau before the commencement of the present session of the National Assembly, there is no provision for the transfer of the NAB’s top three bosses to the new commission.
These sources said that some frustrated souls in the bureau have approached the government to bring in certain appropriate changes in the draft law to protect and secure their jobs in the future commission. However, the things have not yet turned out to be in their favour despite all that the tamed NAB has been doing under Admiral Bukhari.
The method and criteria for the top appointments in the present NAB law are different from the proposed future commission owing to which the fate of the chairman, deputy chairman and prosecutor general have become uncertain and their continuation in the proposed commission has become impossible unless the required changes are made in the draft law.
The draft law envisages that a retired Supreme Court judge or a former BS-22 federal government servant could be appointed as chairman of the proposed National Accountability Commission. The draft law has no provision for a retired general or admiral to qualify for the position of NAB chairman.
The incumbent chairman is a retired naval chief but despite favouring the rulers in different corruption cases as has been pointed out by the apex court time and again, Bukhari is ineligible to become the chairman of the future commission.
His Deputy Chairman Rear Admiral (R) Saeed Ahmad Sargana is also ineligible to qualify for the same position in the proposed Accountability Commission as the draft law qualifies a retired high court judge or a retired BS-21 officer of the federal government for this post. The prosecutor general has to be appointed by the president in consultation with the chairman of the future commission.
With regard to other officers of the NAB, the draft law does not guarantee job to anyone as it says that all contractual appointees have to go home whereas the regular employees of the present NAB would be surrendered to the surplus pools.
With regard to the deputationists, the draft law suggests their reversion to their respective parent departments.
According to the NAB sources, this situation is extremely embarrassing for the incumbent chairman, who has been reprimanded by the Supreme Court for protecting the corrupt in the government. The NAB under Bukhari has also been found siding with the key rulers in cases of corruption and misuse of authority. However, still there is no future for the old man in the proposed commission.At a news conference, however, Admiral Bokhari said he would not resign and if someone wanted to remove him, let him try.