Former prime minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has apologised to the nation for having appointed Justice (r) Javed Iqbal as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), The News reported.
A jurist and professor of law, Iqbal has served as a senior justice of the Supreme Court (SC). He was appointed as the NAB chief on October 8, 2017, by then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government led by Abbasi.
“The name of NAB chairman had come from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the appointment was made with consensus,” the former premier said in an informal talk with media outside an accountability court Thursday.
The PML-N leader said the “main aim of NAB was to break the PML-N” and questioned the bureau’s actions for having “instituted the case after arresting an ex-PM”.
Abbasi said he was accused of using a vehicle of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the PM and had he knew about such allegations beforehand, he would have hired a tonga or taxi for reaching the PM Office.
“NAB is conducting investigation against me and remand is also continuing for 55 days, but it doesn’t know anything about the case,” he said further.
Earlier in the day, an accountability court extended the physical remand of former PM Abbasi and former finance adviser Miftah Ismail in the LNG case. Both the leaders were presented before the court that approved NAB’s plea for remand extension and asked it to present the suspects once again on September 26.
