ISLAMABAD: Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala has asserted that politicians and businessmen were regularly subjected to media trials, it was now the turn of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officers to be trialed in the media.
“Now we will hold the trial of every NAB officer by name in the media,” Saleem Mandviwalla said while speaking during a Senate session. He repeated the allegation that people were losing their lives due to alleged excesses of NAB.
“People are committing suicides, leaving the country and they are worried that news about them being issued a NAB notice will be run any moment,” he said, adding that such developments were on the rise.
Referring to NAB’s reported complaint that it was being subjected to a “media trial”, Mandviwalla said it was interesting that until now every other person was subjected to a media trial but for the first time, NAB’s media trial is taking place.
Mandviwala further said that he had met the wife and daughter of retired brigadier Asad Munir, who committed suicide in 2019, who described the difficulties faced by the deceased before his death.
The body of Munir, who was facing multiple inquiries by NAB, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his apartment. He said Munir’s family had told him “what happened with his life since the NAB investigation started”.
Referring to NAB chairman Javed Iqbal, he said, “You cannot stay NAB chairman for your entire life, who will stand with you when you retire? No one, and then you will be blackmailed a lot more,” he warned.
Responding to the Senate deputy chairman, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar said only two people had died in NAB’s physical remand — one Sajjad in 2004 and Razzaq Bhatti in 2014.
The accountability bureau froze more than 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.
