ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday urged the newly-elected government to dissolve the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and hold its employees accountable.
The remarks by the PML-N leader came a day after the party president, Shehbaz Sharif, took oath as the 23rd premier of Pakistan following the ouster of Imran Khan through a joint opposition effort.
“NAB’s employees looted and tortured people for years. It’s time they should be held accountable,” the former premier said at a media talk in Islamabad today morning.
Abbasi came down on the chairman of the bureau, accusing him of “being fully under control” of PTI Chairman and former PM Imran Khan. “He used to take instructions from the previous government,” he alleged.
He further alleged that a member of Imran Khan’s cabinet used to direct the bureau chief to lodge fake cases against the opposition, arresting people and defaming them. “This is your NAB chairman who stayed quiet on Imran Khan’s corruption,” he added.
Khaqan also lamented that NAB couldn’t prove a single reference or inquiry against PML-N leaders in the last four years. “Why didn’t they investigate people who were involved in corruption worth billions of rupees and were sitting in the federal cabinet,” he demanded.
Now, he announced, was time to hold NAB accountable. “We are not taking revenge from anyone. We just want to expose the reality of NAB in front of the public. Accountability exists in the country but if you want to indulge in corruption, go to NAB,” Abbasi said.
He also revealed that the government would move courts for the installation of cameras inside NAB courts so that the “public knows who is actually involved in corruption”. Whatever happened in the last four years, he reiterated, would be kept in front of the public.
