PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the National Accountability Bureau’s chairman and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa director general to file comments about a petition seeking action against the anti-corruption body’s officials over dereliction of duty.

The petition filed by six civil society members also sought the court’s declaration that the NAB has failed to take action over the alleged irregularities in several major projects in the province.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued notices to the respondents, including the NAB’s chairman, its KP director general and executive board, and fixed Sept 16 for next hearing into the petition.

The petitioners, including Dr Adil Zareef, Maimoona Noor and four other civil society members, contended that the bureau was carrying out selective accountability and had put all cases against the ruling party’s members on the back-burner.

Civil society members moved PHC against ‘selective’ accountability

They requested the court to direct the NAB to place the case about the issuance of the Malam Jabba ski resort’s lease in the next meeting of its executive board and decide about it in accordance with the law.

Ali Gohar Durrani, lawyer for the petitioners, requested the court to declare that the NAB has failed to perform duties in relation to cases of the erstwhile KP Ehtesab Commission, corruption in Billion Tree Tsunami project, illegal appointments in bank of Khyber and Malam Jabba Ski resort lease cases and that this failure is arbitrary and illegal.

He also sought the court’s orders for action against the NAB officers, who have failed to perform duties about those cases, under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The lawyer said the NAB chairman had announced that a reference in Malam Jabba Skii lease was ready to be filed as early as Dec 2019, but that hadn’t happened yet though seven meetings of the NAB executive board had taken place.

He said the NAB hadn’t showed any progress on the Billion Tree Tsunami and Bank of Khyber illegal appointment cases.

The lawyer said discrimination against the opposition and favour of the ruling elite by the NAB was tantamount to committing a corrupt practice.

He said the superior judiciary had declared time and again that the NAB had been used as a tool for political victimisation as and when it deemed fit and proper.

The lawyer said at the end of the first term of the PTI government in KP in 2018, it dawned upon the petitioners that the KP Ehtesab Commission being an absolute failure was part of history and the money spent of it had gone down the drain.

He said the Billion Tree Tsunami scam was unearthed by the media and the NAB chairman had ordered an inquiry into it on Apr 5, 2018, but the bureau had so far not been able to complete it.

The lawyer said the case of illegal appointments in the Bank of Khyber was handed over to the NAB after the dissolution of the KPEC but it continued to be pending with the bureau with no noteworthy progress.

The respondents in the petition are the federation of Pakistan through law secretary, interior secretary, NAB through its chairman, NAB Executive Board through its chairman, and NAB KP through its director general.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2020