{"id":2475,"date":"2023-09-10T04:33:06","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T04:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/in-sudden-move-nabs-top-lawyer-quits\/"},"modified":"2023-09-10T04:33:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T04:33:06","slug":"in-sudden-move-nabs-top-lawyer-quits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/in-sudden-move-nabs-top-lawyer-quits\/","title":{"rendered":"In sudden move, NAB\u2019s top lawyer quits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>ISLAMABAD: While the Supreme Court is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1774177\/sc-set-to-announce-short-and-sweet-verdict-on-imrans-plea-challenging-nab-amendments\">expected to announce<\/a> next week its judgement in a case challenging amendments made by the previous PDM government to the National Accountability Ordinance, NAB Prosecutor General Asghar Haider tendered his resignation on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>During the last hearing by a three-member SC bench, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial while alluding to the expected judgement had said, \u201cWe will soon announce a short and sweet verdict of the case\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Since CJP Bandial is going to retire on Sept 16, which is Saturday, the apex court is likely to announce the order latest by Friday.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1775054\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Though there were speculations about the reason for his sudden resignation, Mr Haider termed his departure \u201cquite normal\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote-level-1\">\n<p>Asghar Haider says decision has nothing to do with CJP\u2019s retirement next week; SC verdict in amendments case expected soon<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It may be mentioned that Mr Haider was the only prosecutor general who was given extension for an entire second term.<\/p>\n<p>He was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1385003\">appointed<\/a> in January 2018 by the-then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, while the PTI government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1607574\">extended his tenure<\/a> through an ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Haider, a former judge of the Lahore High Court, was removed from the LHC office for taking the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order promulgated by Gen Musharraf on Nov 3, 2007.<\/p>\n<p>NAB law bars an extension in the tenure of prosecutor general. Section 8(a)(iii) of the National Accountability Ordinance said, \u201cThe Prosecutor General Accountability shall hold office for a [non-extendable] period of three years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sources said Mr Haider is a close friend of the CJP, who will be retiring next week.<\/p>\n<p>Talking to <em>Dawn<\/em>, Mr Haider confirmed that Justice Bandial is his friend, but added that the reason for his resignation was entirely different.<\/p>\n<p>He said the NAO, which governs NAB, defines certain qualifications for the prosecutor general.<\/p>\n<p>Section 8 of the NAO states: \u201cThe President of Pakistan, in consultation with the Chairman NAB, may appoint any person, who is qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court, as Prosecutor General Accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Haider said that since an SC judge retires at the age of 65, therefore, he believes that the same criteria is applicable to the PG as well.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Haider turned 65 on July 21. He said he was considering resigning for last three months.<\/p>\n<p>The outgoing PG said he had informed the relevant authorities about his decision, However, the interpretation of age-limit by NAB was different. NAB was of the view that there is no upper age-limit for the superannuation of PG, he added.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if he resigned because he was reluctant to sign the upcoming references against PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Mr Haider replied in the negative.<\/p>\n<p>NAB is investigating two cases against Mr Khan \u2014 one related to 190 million pounds corruption and other is related to the Toshakhana gifts.<\/p>\n<p>As per the relevant law, the NAB chairman may assign the PG charge to any additional prosecutor general (APG).<\/p>\n<p>Sources claimed APG Akbar Tarar may be given the PG charge. Mr Tarar has been working in the bureau for about 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>Sources said that in case the SC set aside the amendments, the cases returned to NAB by the accountability courts would be re-opened.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1703176\">amendment<\/a> clipped the NAB\u2019s wings by proposing that all cases involving an amount below Rs500 million would not come under its purview.<\/p>\n<p>In an amendment to Section 19E, NAB\u2019s authority to allow surveillance with the help of a high court has been withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, NAB cannot take cognisance of the cases which may come under the ambit of other investigation agencies.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: While the Supreme Court is expected to announce next week its judgement in a case challenging amendments made by the previous PDM government to the National Accountability Ordinance, NAB Prosecutor General Asghar Haider tendered his resignation on Saturday. During the last hearing by a three-member SC bench, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial while alluding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/09\/10075816f2279c2.jpg?r=075855","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}