Sexual harassment case against NAB official: IHC extends restraining order to PAC

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) extended its restraining order to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) from taking any “coercive measure” against Director General (DG) NAB Lahore Major Shahzad Saleem (retired) in the matter of sexual harassment.

A single bench of Acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, on Wednesday, heard the petition and issued notices to the respondents including secretary National Assembly and the PAC and sought their arguments over the maintainability of the petition moved by DG (NAB) Lahore Major (retired) Shahzad Saleem against the summons issued to him by the PAC to answer the sexual harassment charges against him as well as former NAB chairman former Justice Javed Iqbal by a woman, Tayyaba Gul.

During the hearing, the bench said there was no problem if the PAC summoned the petitioner in matters pertaining to the accounts. It observed that the PAC could only proceed in cases which fall under the “domain of finance”. He added the question was whether the PAC was authorised to hear such matters other than the accounts.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Arshad Kayani said that the PAC could hear any complaint regarding the public interest. At this, Justice Aamer remarked that the PAC could hear only the finance matters in the public domain. He further said that every institution whether it is parliament or judiciary has its own respect.

Then, the DAG requested the court to grant permission to present the minutes of the last PAC meeting and requested the court to view the answers submitted by the petitioners to the PAC.

At this juncture, the DG NAB’s counsel argued that his client had no hesitation to appear before the PAC. The court said that there is no problem if the NAB officials are called in finance-related cases but when there is an issue of jurisdiction, the court has to monitor it.

Later, the IHC bench sought arguments from the respondents and adjourned the hearing till August 11 for further proceedings.

In this matter, the DG NAB moved the IHC through his counsel, Safdar Shaheen Pirzada advocate and cited the federation through secretary National Assembly (NA), chairman PAC, secretary PAC, and additional secretary PAC as respondents, and requested the court to declare the notice issued to as illegal.

The petitioner stated that the PAC issued an office memorandum, whereby, it was intimated that a meeting of the PAC is scheduled to be held on 07.07.2022 to discuss the agenda of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) i.e. Comprehensive briefing on the Recoveries made by NAB with reference to meeting of the PAC held on 07.06.2022 communicated to NAB vide a letter dated 21.06 2022 while the petitioner was again summoned for 14.07.2022 (verbally).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022