ISLAMABAD - Chairman National Accountability Bureau Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal could not appear before the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice as committee notice was received to him late and later he was re-issued with notice for May 22 to attend to the queries of the parliamentarians regarding the money laundering issue linked to Nawaz Sharif by the ace anti-graft body.

The committee meeting held in the chair of Ch. Mohammad Ashraf could not take up the 30th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017 pertaining to merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but as PTI members of the committee came up with fresh amendments in the bill so the matter was also deferred for the next meeting.

The committee considered ‘The legal Practitioners and Bar Council (Amendment) Bill 2018 and after detailed deliberations recommended that the bill may be passed by the Parliament.

In another development, the Pakistan People’s Party members in the committee Syed Naveed Qamar and Shagufta Jamani had sent their resignations for membership of the committee to Speaker National Assembly taking the plea that the committee meeting was called in haste and summoned Chairman NAB to pressurise him in connection with the money laundering probe against former premier Nawaz Sharif.

They said that they came to know about the committee meeting through media and no proper communication had been made with them as the routine practice of conduct of committee meetings.

At the outset of the committee meeting, the ruling PML-N members of the committee engaged into verbal brawl with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members of the committee on summoning of the Chairman NAB in the committee as latter were of the view that it was person-specific and the PML-N wanted to grill NAB chairman for raising the issue of alleged money laundering by PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif to India.

The committee chairman Ch. Mohammad Ashraf said that Nawaz Sharif remained three times prime minister of the country and the committee was fully competent to summon Chairman NAB to explain his position on levelling frivolous allegations on him.

DG NAB Rawalpindi Irfan Naeem Mangi appeared and requested the chair to extend the date as Chairman NAB received notice of the committee late as he was busy in some other engagements.

The chair accepted the plea and deferred the matter till May 22 which was again opposed by PTI, MQM and JI members of the committee and said that he(NAB Chairman) should not be called as the department had done nothing so far regarding the alleged money laundering by Nawaz Sharif.

During the course of interaction, the ruling PML-N and PTI members of the committee exchanged hot words and PTI members demanded that Nawaz Sharif should also appear before the committee because he was also involved in the matter. PML-N member Mian Abdul Manan said that they have no objection if Nawaz Sharif was called by the committee.

During the meeting, PML-N MNA Mian Abdul Manan also abused media persons for making video of the committee’s proceedings with their cell phones. But the other members of the committee prevailed over him and matter was resolved amicably by the chair.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, Muhammad Tallal Chaudhry, Mian Adul Mannan, Sardar Muhammad Amjad Farooq Khan Khosa, Usman Ibrahim, Sabiha Nazir, Kiran Haider, Eng. Ali Muhammad Khan Advocate, Dr Arif Alvi, S.A Iqbal Quadri, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Aisha Syed, and Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan. Besides, senior officers from THE NAB and the Ministry of Law and Justice also attended the meeting.