Pak Senator slams National Accountability Bureau, asks govt to stop mud-slinging

Islamabad [Pakistan], January 19 : Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla on Monday said although politicians and businessmen were regularly subjected to media trials, it was now the turn of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officers to be tried in the media, reported Dawn. He stressed that the government as well as NAB should take notice of the issue and stop "mud-slinging" against people.
Referring to NAB's reported complaint that it was being subjected to a "media trial", Mandviwalla said it was "interesting that until now every other person was subjected to a media trial but for the first time, NAB's media trial is taking place".
He said this media trial against NAB would continue and more and more people would join it. "Now we will hold the trial of every NAB officer by name in the media," he announced.
Mandviwalla repeated the allegation that people were losing their lives due to alleged excesses of the accountability watchdog during the Senate session.
Describing the ordeals of retired brigadier Asad Munir, who committed suicide in 2019, he said that, "Munir had survived the first suicide attempt and later hung himself". Later, his family informed him "what happened with his life since the NAB investigation started".
The body of Munir, who was facing multiple inquiries by NAB, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the study of his apartment located in the highly guarded Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad in March 2019. He worked both with the military and the government, reported Dawn.
Mandviwalla stressed that the government as well as NAB should take notice of the issue in order to stop "mud-slinging" against people.
"Politicians are smeared every day; it has no effect on us and we will face it, but people cannot tolerate. People are committing suicides, leaving the country and they are worried that news about them being issued a NAB notice will be run any moment," he said.
He also said that NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal was being "blackmailed" through a woman named Tayyaba whose video had leaked in the past. He asked Iqbal to "come in the Senate and tell us who is blackmailing you".
"You cannot stay NAB chairman for your entire life, who will stand with you when you retire? No one, and then you will be blackmailed a lot more," he added, claiming that he had personally "seen messages and heard recordings".
NAB has frozen more than three million shares of different companies registered in Mandviwalla's name with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in connection with the fake accounts case in November last year, the Senate deputy chairman has vowed to expose the bureau internationally, reported Dawn.