ISLAMABAD: The federal government has appointed Lieutenant General (retd) Nazir Ahmad as the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) chairman for a three-year term.

In a notification, the Ministry of Law and Justice said that the appointment had been made by the federal government after a consensus between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Raja Riaz.

The post of NAB chairman became vacant on February 15 after the acceptance of the resignation tendered by Aftab Sultan, the notification said.

After “detailed deliberations”, both sides agreed on the appointment of Lt Gen (retd) Ahmad.

The NAB chairman, according to the law ministry, shall hold office for a “non-extendable term of three years” and will not be eligible for subsequent appointment.

It is also not possible to remove the chairman from office except on the grounds and in the manner as provided in Article 209 of the Constitution, the notification added.

Aftab Sultan’s resignation
Earlier — in a move welcomed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — Sultan had tendered his resignation as NAB chairman, after reportedly refusing to “toe the line”.

He had been appointed as head of the anti-graft body on July 21, 2022, for three years by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government after Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal’s tenure ended last year.

Sultan, according to a statement from the PM’s Office, presented his resignation to PM Shehbaz citing personal reasons. At the time of his resignation, Sultan said: “I was asked to do certain things which were not acceptable to me.

Sources revealed that Sultan had refused to make arrests of politicians on someone’s orders.

“He was pressurised by the government and some other institutions in the last four months to register cases against the people of their choice and arrest them,” they further said.

Sultan, according to the source, had also withdrawn the arrest powers from NAB director-generals (DGs) to avoid misuse of authority by the officials.