LAHORE: Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla has vowed to issue production warrants for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Javed Iqbal if he failed to appear before the upper House to answer questions about the anti-graft watchdog’s alleged illegal actions.
Mandviwalla made this announcement while speaking to reporters in Lahore on Sunday. It may be mentioned that after NAB seized over three million shares of different companies registered in Mandviwala’s name with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in connection with the fake accounts case last month, the Senate deputy chairman had vowed to expose the Bureau internationally. He had also announced that a special session of the Senate will be demanded to take up a privilege motion that he has submitted against NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal.
While deploring that it was a failure on the part of political parties to not have amended the NAB ordinance, Mandviwalla said businessmen had nothing to do with NAB but the Bureau issued notices to people (traders) for even selling a private plot or importing something.
Calling upon all the opposition parties, Saleem said they must pass a law that whenever an allegation is leveled against a parliamentarian, they will be held accountable by the parliament.
He said all of the hearings of the Senate committee that will take up the issue will be transparent and will be held before the media in which all of NAB’s alleged wrongdoings will be discussed including “fake degrees, fake domiciles and assets beyond means” of the bureau’s officials.
Responding to a query about whether the Senate is ‘controlled’ or not in his opinion, the deputy chairman said he was proceeding in accordance with the rules and no one had stopped him from summoning anyone. “If somebody stops me, they will violate the Constitution and rules of Senate,” he remarked.
According to him, all the government departments including the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab were following NAB’s directions and have lost their independence.
The Senate deputy chairman in a couple of month had held several press briefings in which he repeatedly accused the anti-graft watchdog of violating human rights and vowed to get it blacklisted internationally.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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