Parliament can't decide legality of NAB action, says minister

ISLAMABAD: Federal Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem on Wednesday said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is an independent institution and the incumbent government is not interfering in its matters.

He said Section 24 of NAB Ordinance gives powers to the Bureau to arrest any person during an investigation.  He said the NAB exercised its power under this section to arrest Shahbaz Sharif.

The minister said the National Assembly is not a court of law and it cannot declare the proceedings of the anti-graft watchdog lawful or unlawful.

He was responding to a proposal floated by Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif to constitute a parliamentary body to discuss the Bureau’s matters.

Mr Sharif, who is in the Bureau’s custody these days in Ashiana Housing Scheme scandal, attended the session following the production orders issued by the Speaker.

The PML-N president claimed that the chairman NAB had already prepared arrest orders between July 5 and 6, but they were delayed ‘for mysterious reasons’.

“Is this the National Accountability Bureau or National Blackmailing Bureau,” the under-fire former CM said on the floor of the House.

The NA opposition leader claimed that NAB asked him to record testimony against Khawaja Asif and become an approver. “I replied them to control themselves,” he added.

“I later realised that people who would tell me that NAB is asking them to record testimony against Shahbaz Sharif was all true,” he stated.