ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has taken notice of delay in the appointment of new prosecutor general (PG) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
A bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmad, while hearing the bail application of an accused in a modaraba scam, asked the attorney general to ascertain the government stance regarding delay in the appointment. The court will take up the matter on Monday.
The development came amid a deadlock between the government and the NAB chairman on the appointment of prosecutor general of the accountability watchdog.
The post has been vacant since November when the three-year tenure of Waqas Qadeer Dar had ended. Under the law, the federal government must make the appointment after consulting the NAB chairman.
According to sources, the attorney general had contacted the government regarding the need for early appointment of the PG as NAB’s Special Prosecutor Imranul Haq appeared before the court on Wednesday.
Last month, NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal sent a list of five lawyers to the government to pick from. He proposed the names of Mudassir Khalid Abbasi, Shah Khawar, Syed Asghar Haider, Fasihul Mulk and Nasir Saeed Sheikh. But the government has yet to take the decision.
The sources claimed that the Sharif family wanted to appoint a lawyer of its own choice but the chairman was unwilling to accept this.
During the hearing, the SC bench also noted that the post of the judge of the Accountability Court-2 had been vacant since September.