Supreme Court of Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Attorney General of Pakistan to submit relevant documents about appointment of Deputy Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Javed Qazi after admitting a plea for regular hearing.
The three-member bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on a writ petition directed that the documents containing delegating powers of chairman to the deputy, promotion of deputy chairman in BPS-21 and comprehensive details of all the NAB references filed and dropped during the last three years.
Wahab ul Khairi, the petitioner, appeared and stated that Javed Qazi’s appointment as NAB Deputy Chairman was against the provisions of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) because as deputationist he could not be given the said post.
He said before reaching an age of superannuation, he could not be assigned new duties. Moreover, the officer was promoted to BPS-21 after his appointment in the NAB, he added.
He also claimed that there were certain questions on the integrity of the Deputy Chairman, which were evident from his service record.
He said under Sections 7 and 34A, the NAB Chairman could not delegate his powers to his deputy.
Waseem Sajjad, appearing as counsel for the respondent, categorically denied the claims and defended the appointment process.
He said Qazi was BPS-21 grade officer in Customs Department and his appointment was made on a tenure post with non-extendable period of three years.
To a bench’s query, he replied that Qazi’s appointment was done under the related provisions of NAO and he was appointed by the President in consultation with the NAB Chairman and on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Referring to Section 7 of NAO, he said that the NAB Chairman initiated the process and recommendations were sent to the President.
Just like the appointment of High Court judges in which the Chief Justice of Pakistan had the discretion, the NAB Chairman under relevant provisions initiated the process, he added.
Justice Javed Iqbal said that it had appeared in media reports that about 34 major references had been dropped during the last three years.
Attorney General for Pakistan Molvi Anwarul Haq aprised the court that the petitioner had based his contentions on media reports.
“Can the petitioner cite a single reference which had been dropped?” he questioned. The bench will conduct regular hearing of the case after a week.