ISLAMABAD: Justice Maqbool Baqar – an ex-judge of the Supreme Court – has emerged as the favourite candidate for the top slot of chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The sources privy to the development told Business Recorder that another former judge of the apex court Justice (former) Dost Muhammad Khan’s name is also under consideration but most probably Justice Baqar would be handpicked.

They said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif consulted the issue with the opposition leader in the National Assembly Raja Riaz and his coalition partners who made no objection over Justice Baqar’s name.

“The name of Justice Baqar was discussed during a meeting between Shehbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari and the duo agreed over his name,” they said.

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Maqbool Baqar retired from the apex court in April this year and had previously served as a judge of the Sindh High Court.

Talking to journalists, Raja Riaz said that the name of the NAB chairman would be finalized by June 02.

“We have not finalized the names yet, but all the names who are being considered are honourable people,” he said following the meeting with the prime minister.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry; however, alleged that a ‘puppet’ had been handpicked by ‘imported government’ as there is a ‘dummy’ opposition leader in the NA. He said any consultation with a dummy opposition leader in the NA is meaningless. However, he said that Justice Baqar is a reasonable man, and hopefully, he will not be a part of this process as the current parliament is ‘imported’ which the PTI will never accept.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022