Where Regals Dare

NAB Chairman Aftab Sultan, an honest and competent officer, resigned from his post while refusing to toe the line of the govt

LAHORE: The sudden resignation of Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Aftab Sultan has come as a bombshell for most people, especially the legal experts, and is the latest proof as to how Pakistan’s accountability system has been made toothless according to a well thought out plan.

Since Pakistan came into being in 1947, accountability of the powerful political elite, bureaucracy and business community has remained a dream unfulfilled till date.

Sultan has resigned from his post, reportedly after developing differences with the coalition government of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for not initiating cases against the leadership of the opposition party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The PDM government had appointed Sultan as the head of the anti-corruption watchdog in July last year for a three-year term, after retired Justice Javed Iqbal had relinquished charge as the NAB chairman.

Sultan, according to the source, had refused to ‘toe the line’ of the incumbent government in framing charges and taking action against the opposition, particularly against Imran Khan over the Toshakhana issue.

Without mincing his words, Sultan informed the government that he would not be resorting to politics of victimization at any cost and will only follow the law.

According to sources, the former chairman NAB had also withdrawn the powers of the regional director generals (DGs) of the Bureau to arrest any politician or accused in order to avoid misuse of authority by the officials.

It came as a surprise, though, that just hours after Aftab Sultan’s resignation, NAB Rawalpindi summoned Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi for a hearing in the Toshakhana case, set for March 9.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appreciated the services of Aftab Sultan and lauded his honesty and uprightness. “Upon his insistence, the prime minister reluctantly accepted the resignation,” s statement issued by the PM Office stated.

Who is Aftab Sultan

Aftab Sultan is a law graduate from Punjab University and did his LLM from the University of Cambridge and also MSc in jurisprudence/legal studies from the University of Edinburgh. In 2002, being a Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sargodha, Sultan had refused to assist the administration during the referendum of the then chief executive, late General Pervez Musharraf. He was made Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for this defiance.

Mr Sultan had served as IGP Punjab and the commandant of the National Police Academy. He retired as the head of the civilian spy agency, i.e, Intelligence Bureau (IB) from June 2013 to April 2018. He had served under four prime ministers — Yousuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi of two governments each of the PPP and the PML-N.

Following the directions of the Supreme Court, as additional inspector general of police Mr Sultan had prepared a 5,000-page report on the famous Bank of Punjab case. Later, the SC had appointed him as the investigation officer of the case as well.

Sultan was also implicated in a NAB case due to alleged irregularities in the purchase of vehicles for a proposed Saarc conference which never took place. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also an accused in that case but NAB did not file the reference.

Talking to Bol News, former Prosecutor NAB Raja Aamir Abbas said resignation of Aftab Sultan wouldn’t make any difference as the incumbent government had already managed their cases and the Bureau head didn’t take much initiative to challenge those high-profile cases in the court of law.

“Aftab Sultan didn’t file an application in Maryam Nawaz’s case. He also provided relief to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Salman Shehbaz, younger son of Prime Minister Sharif.”

According to the former prosecutor, the incumbent corrupt lot has already amended the NAB laws and made the anti-graft body totally a toothless institution. “We’re only banking on the Supreme Court where the matter of NAB amendments has been pending. The Supreme Court can strike down the controversial amendments which were aimed to facilitate a corrupt lot.”

Mr Abbas claimed that there were only four to five references filed by the Bureau during the tenure of Aftab Sultan which can easily predict his performance. He suggested that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) should immediately knock the door of the apex court to get the slot of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly after Lahore High Court had suspended the notifications of their lawmakers otherwise the PDM government would be in a hurry to fill the vacant post of chairman NAB through Raja Riaz.

To a question that it was Aftab Sultan who didn’t file any case against the PTI leadership including its chairman Imran Khan even after he was pressurized, the former prosecutor said when the PDM government had amended the NAB law then under what law he could have taken actions against Imran Khan.

The value of precious watches sold by Imran Khan are more than Rs 500 million, he asked, adding NAB can only initiate proceedings in a case where the involved amount is more than Rs 500 million.

Senior analyst Salman Abid was of the view that although we have accountability institutions but unfortunately, they were misused by political and military leadership for political victimization of their opponents.

“Accountability departments have always served as a political tool. Every government has used them as a weapon. Even during the tenure of Imran Khan, NAB and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were used against the political opponents nakedly.”

Talking to Bol News, Mr Abid further said former chairman NAB was under constant pressure for not taking actions against Imran Khan and his party. He said after the recent controversial amendments into NAB law, there was not much room available for the Bureau’s head to initiate actions easily.

“Our political as well as our military establishment both are responsible for crumbling the accountability system in the country. They always handpicked their men and used him for their greater cause.”

The analyst further said PPP and PML-N had signed a charter of democracy in which it was vowed to establish a strong accountability mechanism in the country but not the parties strengthened the NAB instead. To a question, Mr Abid said there was no political will insight for strengthening the accountability regime and bringing corrupt lot under the law.

“Its true that white collar crimes are tough to deal with but who would strengthen NAB and FIA to investigate these crimes,” he asked, adding if politicians don’t want NAB then who will replace it. According to him, our premier investigation agency FIA has already been destroyed due to continued political intervention by the respective governments.

“This country can only function and move ahead if we establish rule of law by strengthening our accountability departments which would act as per law against the mighty political elite as well. There is not a single politician who could be held responsible for his corruption and corrupt practices till date,” he added.