ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla on Sunday declared 'war' on National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying he would make sure that "NAB gets blacklisted in the entire world," and that the upper House of the Parliament would hold the accountability watchdog accountable for its actions.
"NAB will have to pay the price of tyrannies it inflicted on innocent people," he said addressing a press conference in the federal capital.
"We will expose NAB, we will check the degrees of NAB personnel," an apparently perturbed Mandviwalla said in a hard-hitting presser against the national accountability watchdog.
Mandviwalla alleged that innocent people died in the custody of NAB and he wrote a letter to the army chief informing him about NAB's 'misdeeds.'
"The victims of NAB's highhandedness and their families will be summoned in Senate. We will make sure that the NAB gets blacklisted in the entire world," he said adding that Senate's requisitioned session would scrutinize NAB's role and its actions.
"Unlike NAB's interrogations, our investigation against NAB would be open for everyone to see," he said.
Earlier, NAB released details of fake accounts case against Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla.
A statement issued by NAB recently said the allegations of the deputy chairman Senate were an impediment and obstruction in the probe which was tantamount to corruption.
According to NAB, former managing director Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Ejaz Haroon had illegally allotted 12 plots. "Saleem Mandviwalla and Ejaz Haroon made a suspicious deal with Abdul Ghani Majeed, receiving Rs 140 million from a fake account with Rs 80 million going to Ejaz Haroon and Rs 60 million to Saleem Mandviwalla," the statement said.
Saleem Mandviwalla used the account of Mandviwalla Builders to conceal the received money. When NAB started investigating the matter, an attempt was made to show the corruption money as a loan. Saleem Mandviwalla used the money to buy plots in the name of his employee Abdul Qadir Shawani, NAB said adding that Mandviwalla sold the plots and bought shares in the name of another employee with the same amount. He bought 3 million shares of Mangla View for Rs30 million in the name of the employee with his own signature, it said.
Tariq, an employee of Saleem Mandviwalla, who owns millions of shares, is actually a benamidar. Instead of responding to the allegations, Saleem Mandviwalla was hiding behind the business community, NAB said.
Senate session being requisitioned to take up privilege motion moved by Mandviwalla against NAB chairman former Justice Javed Iqbal and other senior officials of accountability watchdog was expected to be summoned last week but it was not summoned.
Talking to Business Recorder earlier on Wednesday, the deputy chairman Senate confirmed that the requisitioned Senate session was likely in that week. He said he would not withdraw his privilege motion against the NAB chief and other senior NAB officials.
On the previous Sunday, the deputy chairman Senate held a blunt press conference in which he lashed out at the NAB chief and other senior officials in connection with fake bank accounts case against him. "NAB is an organisation that patronises blackmail and extortion. It is an organisation which violates human rights. I have decided to highlight NAB's human rights violations at every international forum," he said.
The deputy Senate chief even went to the extent to announce that he would take "NAB to United Nations, European Union and other international forums." He then announced moving a privilege motion in Senate Secretariat against the NAB chief.
Hours after Mandviwalla's press conference, chairman NAB took notice of the issue, halted the proceedings of the case and sought record of the case from NAB Rawalpindi.
The next day, the deputy chairman Senate met the NAB chief at his office where the latter reportedly assured the former to 'personally' look into his complaints. However, the meeting did not apparently prove fruitful as Mandviwalla announced after the meeting that a special Senate session would be requisitioned to take up one-point agenda, his privilege motion.
Few days back, NAB informed an accountability court that it had frozen 3.1 million shares of different companies registered in the name of Mandviwalla with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in connection with the fake accounts case. The case is pending.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020