ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari in a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari stated that NAB officers were under pressure from the Supreme Court has they were not being given enough time to investigate cases and to implement the court’s orders, DawnNews reported.

Bokhari’s letter that came to fore over a week after one of NAB’s investigators in the rental power projects case allegedly committed suicide also voiced his reservations over the role of the Supreme Court.

The letter said the NAB did not get sufficient time to implement the apex court's directives, adding that the NAB Ordinance did not permit the filing of a reference without the bureau chairman's approval.

It further stated that a section of the media was trying to defame the bureau’s chairman, adding that this section may also have some relation to a stay order over its taxes.

In the letter, Bokhari suggested that the so-called media campaign against him may be an attempt to please the apex court and alleged that it was resulting in pressurising him.

The NAB is currently embroiled in the RPP case in which the prime minister is among the accused. The matter took on complications after Kamran Faisal, one of the bureau's investigators delegated to the probe, allegedly committed suicide on Jan 18.

Also last week, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court requesting it to stop Bokhari from working as chairman of the bureau. The petitioner had argued that in spite of rampant corruption in the country amounting to billions of rupees, the NAB chairman had failed to take necessary action.

Moreover, in 2012, the apex court had issued a show cause notice to Bokhari seeking an explanation why he should not be arraigned under contempt charges for not implementing the court’s ruling in the RPP case.