LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been criticised for issuing a notice to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to appear before NAB authorities on Tuesday (today), three days before the party is going to observe former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary in Rawalpindi.

“We condemn NAB authorities for summoning Bilawal Bhutto in cases about which the Supreme Court had already stated that Bilawal was underage (at the time of the alleged financial irregularities committed by his close relatives). But the NAB is committing contempt of court by ignoring it and issuing notice to Bilawal,” Tehrik-i-Istiqlal president Rehmat Khan Wardag said here on Monday.

The NAB action, he feared, would also stoke sense of deprivation among smaller units of the federation, while national political stability required accepting provincial mandate of PPP and other parties.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2019