The government on Thursday appointed former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Aftab Sultan as the new chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Retired Judge Javed Iqbal did abandoned He took over as the NAB president on June 2 following the expiration of the recently promulgated ordinance, which had allowed him to remain in office until a new chief is appointed.
A notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, a copy of which is available don.comsaid: “The Federal Government is pleased to appoint Aftab Sultan, a retired BS-22 officer of the Police Service of Pakistan, as Chairman NAB, after consultation between the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly. Non-extendable period of three years from the date of assumption of office.”
It added that the new NAB chief’s terms and conditions during his service will be “acceptable to a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan”.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah also tweeted about the high-profile appointment. The minister said the federal cabinet has approved Sultan’s nomination.
“He is a man of impeccable integrity with an impressive past record. We are hopeful that he will be able to run an accountability campaign without bias.
Addressing a press conference after the federal cabinet meeting, the minister said the cabinet has approved the appointment of Sultan.
According to radio pakistanSanaullah said the sultan’s credibility was “beyond doubt”.
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The new president of NAB is a law graduate from Panjab University, who later did an LLM from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Jurisprudence/Legal Studies from the University of Edinburgh.
In 2002, as the regional police officer in Sargodha, Sultan refused to assist the administration during a referendum called by the then chief executive, retired General Pervez Musharraf. He paid for his disobedience when he was made OSD.
He also produced a 5,000-page report good On the directions of Supreme Court as Additional Inspector General of Police regarding the famous Bank of Punjab case. The SC had appointed Sultan as the investigating officer after he expressed dissatisfaction with the probe conducted by the NAB.
Sultan retired as the IB chief on April 3, 2018, after serving from June 7, 2013.
He served two governments each of the PPP and PML-N under four prime ministers—Yousuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.