LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Wednesday that chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Former Justice Javed Iqbal should resign and go home.
Addressing a press conference at Bilawal House, he demanded to close down NAB forthwith following the detailed judgment of Supreme Court in the Paragon Housing Society case. "The Supreme Court verdict has vindicated the stance of Pakistan Peoples Party on the NAB law. It has been agitating since the time of Benazir Bhutto that the NAB Ordinance is a black law and there is a need for new accountability mechanism in the country. The government was set to introduce another black law under the garb of Financial Action Task Force (FATF)," Bilawal said.
He said the NAB has become a scar on the face of legal system of Pakistan, adding that there was no justification of the NAB after the top court's verdict. The NAB chairman, who was a judge at one point, should resign if he has any respect or read the judgment, he stressed.
"If the highest court in this country has put it out there then we cannot leave it just here. The Parliament should act at once," he said. Bilawal said those who run the National Accountability Bureau should hang their heads in shame if they have any capacity for it and they should go home while closing down the NAB. He added that the NAB should "clarify" itself as the Supreme Court order said that it was not taking actions against the government's mega corruption cases.
"The Bureau should launch an investigation into the foreign funding case, BRT, billion tree cases, special assistants' assets declaration and dual nationality cases at once," Bilawal said.
He said if his party had made such a declaration then they would have been "facing an asset beyond mean cases and the media would have declared them as traitors". "If our system is two-faced then how can he come and say accountability will be done from head to toe?" asked Bilawal, calling for an end to the "joke" that was being done with Pakistan.
Bilawal also slammed the Punjab government, saying that untrained people, who are also incompetent and unqualified, are running government of the country's largest province. He said the Transparency International has pointed out that the incumbent government is the most corrupt one in the history.
According to him, the PTI members themselves admit that the level of corruption is too high in Punjab. He warned that damage to the agriculture in Punjab due to locust attack would hit the food security of the country. The country suffers when a selected government is imposed on it, he added.
While talking about the All Parties Conference (APC) of the opposition, he said he had held a detailed discussion with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). According to him, a committee has been constituted from both sides to finalize modalities of the APC which would meet soon.
He spoke at length on several prevailing issues including the NFC Award, 18th amendment, the possibility of protest movement while observing precautionary measures to save party workers from Coronavirus and a general lack of understanding on the part of Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding governance issues.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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