The Presidency is seemed to have successfully removed all the concerns of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on new Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Muhammad Akhtar Buland Rana's appointment as his oath was taken in Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry administrated the oath to the AGP as this job being one of his administrative functions under Article 168 (2) of the Constitution of Pakistan. Earlier, the CJP had shown concern over the appointment of AGP through a letter that he wrote to President Asif Ali Zardari on August 25, saying that the presidency might not have been informed about the seven severe allegations levelled against Rana.
CJP wrote this letter after he received reports from ISI, FIA and comments from former AGP in response to an anonymous application received by the SC Human Rights Cell. However, President Zardari refused to agree with all the charges levelled against the new AGP while responding to the letter of the CJP and said that the allegations levelled against Rana were not proved at any forum.
After the oath-taking ceremony, the recently appointed AGP told the media persons that he was ready to face the accusations levelled against him whereas he also showed his intention to take legal action against the former AGP. He added that there was no restriction on him to become the AGP under the law of the land, adding that he was cleared of all the allegations by the Prime Minister of Pakistan but was victimised by media. According to him, media has wrongly accused him of involvement in sexual assault on a female subordinate.