PAC not letting NAB chief off the hook, summons him on Jan 26  

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has refused to budge from its position as it again summons on Jan 26 the National Accountability Bureau chief who keeps on skipping his appearance before the panel on one pretext or other, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

According to sources, the NA panel persists in grilling the NAB chief on the amount of money recovered by the anti-graft watchdog.

The NAB chief did not attend the in-camera session of the accounts committee which was ironically convened on the wish of NAB Chief Justice ® Javed Iqbal on Jan 6 saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan had stopped him from appearing before any committee and instead of him, the NAB finance director-general would brief the NA panel. But the PAC chairman refused to get a briefing from the NAB finance DG and adjourned the meeting.

However, later it was disclosed that the premier did not stop the NAB chief from appearing before the accounts committee.

According to sources, the NA panel has once again summoned Justice (retd) Iqbal on Jan 26 and issued a notification in this regard.

Sources further revealed that the PM Office has already informed the PAC Secretariat through its rejoinder.

PAC Chairman Rana Tanvir has said that the committee is investigating the suspicious letter presumably sent by the NAB chief to the panel barring him from attending the session on the PM order.

Mr Tanvir said if it has been proved that the letter was written with the permission of the NAB head, then the committee would file a reference against the latter.

In November last, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance found a mammoth anomaly in the deposited amount of money which the NAB had recovered. The anti-graft watchdog put back just a paltry amount of it i.e. Rs6.50 billion out of the recovered amount of Rs821 billion in the national kitty. The Public Accounts Committee wants to grill the NAB chief on the reported missing amount.

Reporter Usman Khan