ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Army corps commander Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt has been appointed new chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The notification of his appointment was issued by the PM Office after PM Shehbaz Sharif and Opposition leader in the National Assembly Raja Riaz held consultation and agreed on the name of the former general on Saturday.
The development came days after the sudden resignation of Aftab Sultan as the NAB chairman only after seven months at the anti-graft watchdog’s helm.
Sultan cited “interference” and “pressure” as the reasons for his departure, but did not elaborate on who was pressuring him.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took the opportunity to say that the remarks were evidence that he was being coerced into filing corruption references against party chief Imran Khan.
Fawad Chaudhry said that Sultan’s resignation was a big step towards the collapse of a ‘fascist system’, saying he resigned over the ‘interference’ in his work. He also asked the recently-appointed 22 officers in Punjab to follow Sultan’s footsteps and step aside, saying “it is in the interest of both the country and the bureaucracy.”
Surprising as it may seem, political commentators have said that despite the existence of the graft-buster – created in 1999 – corruption has only increased in the country in the past two decades.
The lack of accountability and absence of meaningful accountability is a reason why democracy is still weak in Pakistan, they pointed out and added it was time to go for an across-the-board accountability process.
