PML-N grills govt for delayed consultation bid over NAB chief appointment

Former prime minister and PML-N senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the government has promulgated two ordinances to keep the head of National Accountability Bureau in office deploring the fact that no consultation was made on it and now President Arif Alvi had written a letter seeking consultation after a passage of two months, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The former prime minister was talking to media on Friday outside the building of an accountability court in Karachi where he came to attend a reference against him regarding illegal appointments in the Pakistan State Oil. 

Mr Abbasi said that NAB chairman was working on ‘daily wages’. He censured the government for promulgating ordinances for two times to keep the head of the anti-graft watchdog in office. 

He said that NAB chairman was retired on Oct 6 and the government did not consult the opposition for the appointment of a new chief. He lamented that after a passage of two months, now the president was asking to initiate the consultation process.

The PML-N leader said that the government was making false references against its opponents in order to stifle the dissenting voices. 

On the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project being launched later today by Prime Minister Imran Khan in Karachi, Mr Abbasi derided the government for its slow pace saying the project which should have been completed in just three months took 3½ years for its completion.

He said that Prime Minister Khan had nothing to do with this project ‘he just loves to inaugurate projects and wants to hang the project plaques of his name’. He maintained that this government had not initiated any single project in its tenure. 

He wanted the government to reveal how much was the cost of the buses and how much the government had paid for purchasing them. He said that the Karachiites knew at whose behest, the federal government had purchased these buses. 

Reporter Mumtaz Jamali