Senate, NA authorised to summon anyone, says Mandviwalla about NAB boss

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Senate Deputy Chairperson Saleem Mandviwalla. Geo.tv/Files
  • Senate and National Assembly have the authority to summon anyone, Saleem Mandviwalla said
  • 'NAB chairperson is also a civil servant, so he can be summoned as well'
  • 'Summoning NAB personnel is not unprecedented; others have been summoned and they all complied'

ISLAMABAD: Senate Deputy Chairperson Saleem Mandviwalla on Friday said that the Senate and the National Assembly are authorised to ask any individual to appear before them irrespective of their institutional affiliation.

Mandviwalla said he has never seen anyone refusing to appear before the Senate or the National Assembly whenever they were summoned.

"The chairperson of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is also a civil servant, therefore, he can also be summoned by the Senate as well as the NA," he maintained. 

Related: Warrants can be issued for NAB chairperson if he does not appear before Senate: Mandviwalla

The Senate's deputy chairperson said summoning NAB personnel before the Senate was not unprecedented as several people had been called in the past as well and they fully complied. 

"We never had to summon the NAB chairperson before but the director-general of the bureau has been summoned before," Mandviwalla said. "It is not possible that the committee summons NAB chairperson and he refuses to show up."

He said that if the NAB chairperson refused to appear before the Senate committee, then there were other ways to deal with the situation.

'NAB kills people and drops their bodies at hospitals'

Speaking of the "long list of complaints related to human rights violations" that the Senate claims to have received against the country's accountability watchdog, Mandviwalla said that the Senate will look into the issues soon.

A few days ago, Saleem Mandviwalla had said that Pakistan's anti-graft watchdog has committed some blatant human rights violations, adding that the bureau "kills people and drops off their bodies at hospitals".

Mandviwalla said he had spoken to civil liberty bodies about the anti-corruption watchdog's alleged malpractices but they feared highlighting the matter as it would "tarnish Pakistan's image" around the world.

Read more: Now Senate will hold NAB accountable, says Saleem Mandviwalla in hard-hitting press conference

"NAB accuses everyone of being thieves and robbers", he said, asking: "How dare it level such allegations against people?

"Women call and narrate what the NAB has done to them and their families. This institution is killing people and, when they die, it leaves their bodies in the hospital.