ISLAMABAD Supreme Court has taken strong exception to the delay in appointment of the new Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) despite passage of three weeks due to which important tasks are pending. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry comprising Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing the Bank of Punjab multibillion scam. Justice Khalilur Rehman rebuked Prosecutor General NAB, Irfan Qadir, for using scandalous words as he (Qadir) said the judges of the Supreme Court were preconceived in their decisions. Qadir had further said that after reading two statements of judges in the newspapers, he felt that he was targeted. To a query of the bench he said that one was of Justice Ramday in which he (Ramday) had said that those who were thrown by the courts under fraud allegations were obliged by the government and got high offices and the second case was with regard to Chief Justices remarks that the criminals must be sent to jails. Qadir also called it the result of bad media reporting. The bench then asked how it could be bad, If you are not criminal then dont worry but our statements are correct. Qadir took another turn and said that he was confused due to bad media reporting. He also held media responsible for bad reporting against him. Khwaja Haris, the counsel for BoP, submitted before the bench that Irfan Qadir was accused in BoP scam and could not present the NAB in this case. He further told that he already had challenged Irfans appointment as well as NAB Acting Chairman. When NAB Prosecutor General started blaming judiciary, Justice Ramday told Irfan to hold his tongue. Justice Ramday asked the Attorney General why despite the lapse of three weeks NAB chairmans slot was still lying vacant. Justice Ramday asked the Attorney General if the government had initiated process for appointment of the new Chairman NAB. Upon that the Attorney General replied in the negative. The Chief Justice then asked since the government was not consulting with the Supreme Court and Opposition Leader for the appointment of the NAB Chief then how the controversy could be resolved under the Constitution. Chief Justice observed that it showed that Hamid Khans arguments were justified that the government was using delaying tactics to create hurdles in the appointment process. The case has been adjourned till Wednesday (tomorrow).