Govt to send name to Nisar: Justice Raza tipped as NAB chairman
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to nominate Justice Mohammad Sardar Raza Khan, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, as chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, sources told Dawn on Monday.
The government will send the name of Justice Raza to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for consultation as required by the NAB Ordinance.
“We want to appoint Justice Raza as NAB chairman because he is an upright man and will be acceptable to the opposition as well,” a senior official of the law ministry told Dawn.
On June 22, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, while disposing of a constitutional petition filed by Al-Jehad Trust challenging the appointment of NAB deputy chairman Javed Kazi, told the government that if it failed to fill the vacant posts of NAB chairman and prosecutor general in one month, the deputy chairman would be automatically barred from exercising the delegated powers of the NAB chairman and the bureau would become non-functional.
PML-N leader Siddiqul Farooq told Dawn his party and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly would not object to the nomination of an honourable judge of the apex court, but even then `meaningful` consultation with the leader of opposition would be required.
“If the government does not go for meaningful consultation with the leader of opposition, the appointment of any person will be against the law and the directives of the Supreme Court,” he said.
The apex court had ordered removal of former NAB chairman Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah for being appointed without `meaningful` consultation with the leader of opposition.
It is for the first time since the establishment of the NAB 11 years ago that it is being run by its deputy chairman, who is allegedly implementing the government`s plan to wrap up all corruption references revived by a December 16, 2009, judgment of the Supreme Court against the National Reconciliation Ordinance.
Sources close to the law minister said efforts were under way to convince the opposition on the proposed name. The source quoted former law minister Babar Awan as saying: “The NAB chairman will be appointed in a few days.”
However, in view of the extremely strained relationship between the PPP and PML-N it appears unlikely that the two parties will agree on any name.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/5/2011
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