ISLAMABAD       -    Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa on Thursday took notice over the letter purportedly written by Brigadier (Retd) Asad Munir before committing suicide regarding his alleged harassment by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The top court’s Human Rights Cell, in this regard, has written a letter to NAB Headquarters with the directions to Chairman NAB to inquire into the letter and submit the report within 15 days, sources said.

Once the report comes, it will be decided whether the matter is required to be fixed in open court for hearing or not by taking a suo motu notice.

It will be the first suo motu notice by Chief Justice Khosa since his assumption of the office of chief justice in case the NAB’s report on the matter is not satisfactory.

Brigadier (Red) Munir, a prominent defence analyst, had raised serious questions on the professionalism of accountability watchdog in a letter which he left after taking his life on last Thursday night.

In the letter, Munir said, “I remained the Member Estate from 2006 to 2010. For more than six years there was no case against me but since April 2017 my life has been made miserable by NAB.”

“I am committing suicide to avoid humiliation, being handcuffed and paraded in front of the media,” it added.

Earlier, NAB had issued a press release on March 14 stating the Executive Board Meeting has authorised corruption reference against former Chairman CDA Kamran Ali Qureshi, former Estate Member CDA Asad Munir and others. They have been accused of illegal restoration of a plot situated at F-11 by misusing their authority inflicting a heavy loss on the national kitty.

The letter purportedly written by Munir further stated, “a reference has been filed by NAB against me in a case of restoration of a plot back in 2008. I didn’t restore the plot, it was restored by the chairman, and I had recommended the restoration as I was convinced that it was as per the CDA restoration policy-2007.”

Asad Munir also mentioned in his letter that NAB initiated three investigations and two inquiries against him during last year.

A senior NAB official told The Nation on condition of anonymity that NAB’s Investigation Officers (IOs) are not as trained as required for investigation of high profiles cases. He said the senior officials of the bureau avail opportunities of foreign training but the IOs and junior officers have been deprived of the facility.

He also said that there is a need to appoint new IOs because the existing staff is overburdened as one investigation officer is working on dozens of cases at one time.

He said senior officials of NAB also try to influence investigations and pressurise the IOs for relief to people close to them. He said the NAB investigations and inquiries could be one of the reasons behind the Munir’s suicide.