Acting CJ IHC Justice Aamer Farooq issues notices to NA secretary on DG NAB Lahore Shahzad Saleem’s plea against PAC
ISLAMABAD, July 15 (SABAH): Acting Chief Justice Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Aamer Farooq issued notices over National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore Director General (DG) Major (retd) Shahzad Saleem’s petition against the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday.
The notice was issued to National Assembly secretary with regards to Saleem’s petition challenging the PAC’s decision against him as well and also against his request for a stay order against the committee’s probe into a case following Tayyaba Gul’s harassment allegations.
During the proceedings on Friday, the court also directed the attorney general for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali to provide legal assistance on the “important constitutional matter”.
The National Assembly secretary, PAC Wing and others had been made a party to the petition filed by the DG NAB on July 13, which stated that the notice issued by the PAC were beyond its jurisdiction and therefore seeking it to be declared null and void by the court.
The petitioner had further requested the court to issue a stay order on the PAC notice, contending that the woman already has applications pending in a Lahore accountability court and another in the Federal Shariat Court.
The court heard the petition on Friday and will hear arguments over its maintainability at the next hearing, fixed for July 20. “The PAC’s agenda was concerned with recoveries,” argued the petitioner’s counsel during Friday’s hearing.
The court questioned if the PAC was part of parliament, to which the lawyer responded that it was not.
Upon this, the court questioned if the PAC was separate from the parliament, then “can writ be issued” and whether the committee fell “under federal, provincial or local authorities”.
The IHC further inquired when Shahzad Saleem was summoned before the PAC, to which his lawyer said that he was called “verbally on 14 and now on the 18”.
It may be mentioned here that as a non-ministerial committee, the PAC examines public audits and if required, invites ministers or government officials for questioning on government funds. Almost all parties in the NA have representation in the 24-member panel.
The PAC’s decision to summon Saleem had come following a statement on July 8 by Tayyaba Gul – whose controversial video with the former NAB chairman had surfaced in 2019. In her statement, she had alleged that NAB officials stripped her naked, made videos and filed cases, when she refused to comply with Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal’s “demands”.
Gul had alleged before the PAC that NAB Director General Shahzad Saleem along with others installed cameras in a room at the bureau’s Lahore office, stripped her naked and made videos that were later shown to her husband for mentally torturing him, when he was in custody in ‘fake’ cases.