Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The PML-N on Tuesday demanded a new accountability body, a day after the Supreme Court slammed the National Accountability Bureau’s “utter disregard for law” in the Paragon Housing Society case’s detailed verdict.
Justice Maqbool Baqar had reprimanded the anti-graft watchdog — in a detailed, 87-page ruling in Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique’s bail plea — over various actions and processes, saying its “conduct throughout this case is a clear manifestation of their utter disregard for law, fair play, equity, and propriety”.
Khawaja Saad Rafique, addressing a press conference on Tuesday flanked by PML-N leaders, said: “After the Supreme Court verdict, NAB has no standing.”
“NAB should be abolished […] The opposition and government should legislate for a new accountability body,” he said, adding: “There is no atmosphere of justice in NAB.” Rafique said that history bears witness that the descendants of those who had strived for the creation of Pakistan were mistreated but there is “no precedent for what happened this time”. “This trend, of injustice, must be stopped.”
“I was disappointed with [the] justice [system], but this decision is a beacon of light [for me],” he said, while referring to the top court’s verdict. He said that PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and PPP’s Khursheed Shah, along with Jang Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, are “prisoners of conscience”.
