NAB ‘violates’ SC orders in top official’s appointment

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has made what appears to be a controversial appointment to one of the top posts in the bureau by allegedly violating its rules and orders of the Supreme Court.

According to documents available with Dawn, Nasir Iqbal — a grade-20 officer in the Inland Revenue Services — has been made NAB’s director general (Rawalpindi) region. NAB hired him after removal of its four directors general on the orders of the apex court for not meeting the ‘requisite experience’.

One of the violations of NAB rules committed in Mr Iqbal’s appointment is that he was inducted in NAB on March 8 from the Inland Revenue Service where he was a grade-20 officer, but within a week (on March 13) he was promoted to grade-21 and was made director general (Chairman’s Secretariat).

According to a notification issued on Tuesday, Mr Iqbal has been appointed as director general (Rawalpindi), one of the important posts in a NAB’s region where majority of mega corruption cases are referred by its headquarters.

The notification says that five other NAB top officials have been transferred to other positions: DG (Sukkur) Mohammd Altaf Bawany has been posted as DG (Karachi), DG (Rawalpindi) Atiqur Rehman was been made DG (Multan), Director NAB Headquarters Irfan Naeem Mangi has been transferred as DG (Balochistan), Director Sukkur Fayyaz Ahmed Qureshi will work as DG (Sukkar) and Additional Director (Operation Division) Asim Lodhi will work as director (Chairman Secretariat).

It has been learnt that Mr Bawany who has been transferred as DG (Karachi) also does not meet the requisite experience as he was inducted in NAB in 2013.

According to NAB rules, at least 22 years of experience in legal matters, holding inquiry and investigations, prevention of white collar crimes and fraud investigation was mandatory to hold the office of the director general NAB.

Many attempts were made to contact NAB spokesman Nawaz Ali Asim to get the bureau’s version over the controversial appointment, but in vain.

Under a judgement of the Supreme Court given on March 31, some top officials of NAB had been sent home for not meeting “requisite experience”. The appointment of Mr Iqbal is also said to be not in line with the apex court’s verdict because he is basically an official of the Inland Revenue Service which deals with three types of taxes — income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty.

The SC verdict said: “As regards the officers namely Maj (retired) Syed Burhan Ali, Maj (retired) Tariq Muhammad, Maj (retired) Shabbbir Ahmed and Ms. Aliya Rasheed, they were not qualified to hold the respective posts in NAB.”

The judgement further said: “On the issue of requisite experience in the initial appointments in the NAB, the Secretary, Establishment Division, had noticed 96 officers who lacked the requisite experience and he suggested, with the consent of the Chairman, NAB, that a committee be formed to examine the issue.”

The notification under which Mr Iqbal was inducted in NAB on March 8 said: “Mr Nasir Iqbal, a BS-20 officer of Inland Revenue Service (IRC), is transferred and his services are place at the disposal of NAB, under Section 10 of the Civil Servant Act, 1973, with immediate effect and until further orders.”

A NAB official who did not want to be named told Dawn that under Section 10 of the Civil Servant Act, 1973, one grade above was given to the civil servant when they were deputed to any other government department. However, such rules did not apply in NAB as the NAB Employees Terms and Conditions of Services (TCS), 2002, said: “A person belonging to federal government including armed forces of Pakistan or a provincial government or a corporation or body set up or controlled by any such government and serving on deputation in the NAB may opt for permanent absorption in the NAB against the post equal to or identical with the post held on regular basis by him, under such government, corporation or body.”

It has been learnt that some other officials are also serving in NAB without requisite experience and nothing is being done by the chairman to obey the orders of the Supreme Court.

Source: Dawn