ISLAMABAD - Justice (r) Javed Iqbal who officially assumed charge as the National Accountability Bureau chairman Wednesday said all major cases before the NAB would be taken to logical conclusion.
Justice (r) Javed Iqbal held an informal talk with media persons outside the Parliament House on his arrival there to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights. He hoped all the matters would be smoothly settled. He vowed to wind up all big cases without delaying any proceedings. “It is not new for me to face challenges,” he remarked.
The NAB chairman did not name the cases against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family, but said all the cases would be followed as per law and no delay would be tolerated. He averred cases against politicians would be dealt with on merit.
He added he will personally monitor the prosecution of the cases and a visible change will be witnessed in this regard in time.
Javed Iqbal said he would complete all the major corruption cases as he had done in the case of the Abbottabad Inquiry Commission, adding it was up to the government to release its report. He said he had handed over findings of the commission to the authorities.
Answering questions, the new NAB chairman said he had briefed the then prime minister on the Abbottabad Commission report, but perhaps he was not listening to him seriously.
He said dealing with challenges was not a new thing for him and no case would be allowed to linger on.
The NAB chairman further said he would continue to head Missing Persons’ Commission as its final report was in the last phase, and would leave the commission after the completion of its report.
Earlier, Javed Iqbal was received by the NAB deputy chairman and other officers when he reached the bureau headquarters to formally assume charge as head of the federal anti-graft body.
Giving the officials their first task, the new NAB chief asked for the details of all outstanding cases, references and records.
Speaking at the Senate standing committee, headed by Senator Nasreen Jalil, Javed Iqbal said he had given importance to the Parliament and the Constitution all through his life. He said the Balochistan missing persons’ number had been exaggerated.
He told the Senate body that several foreign agencies and non-state actors were active in Balochistan. He asserted: “Illegal confinement of people is not acceptable and that Pakistan is not a banana republic that people go missing here.”
The government on Sunday had issued a notification of the NAB chairman’s appointment after consultation between the leader of the house and the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly for a non-extendable period of four years from the date he assumes the charge of the office, under the National Accountability Ordinance.
Justice (r) Javed Iqbal served as senior justice of the Supreme Court from 2004 to 2011. Prior to his elevation to the apex court, he remained chief justice of Balochistan High Court for one month.
During his career as a jurist, he had heard and led high-profile cases, including the case of suspension of fellow Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and missing persons’ case in 2012. He also led the Abbottabad Commission to probe the raid conducted by the United States to hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Born in Quetta in 1936, Justice Javed became a public prosecutor and pleader at the Balochistan High Court in 1971. In 1973, he joined the law branch of the Balochistan government and worked there till 1977.
He acted as deputy secretary at the law department in 1981 and served as the officiating law secretary till 1982. The same year, he resigned from the provincial government’s legal branch.
In 1982, he was appointed as district and sessions judge. In 1985, he attended International Islamic University in Islamabad and gained master’s degree in Islamic law.
In 1990, he became Balochistan High Court’s registrar and retained this slot until 1993. The same year, he was elevated as an additional judge at Balochistan High Court and was confirmed as a justice in 1995. In 1999, he was one of the judges in the country who retook their oath under the PCO.
On February 4, 2000, he was made chief justice of Balochistan High Court and a month later, on April 28, he was elevated as an apex court judge.
When the emergency was clamped in the country on November 3, 2007, he refused to take oath under the PCO and was among the judges who were removed from service.