ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday rejected a dismissal petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) seeking removal of Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (r) Javed Iqbal.
During the hearing, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) upheld the raised objections by SC registrar office, that had directed the petitioner Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Noor Awan to take the matter to the concerned forum rather than reaching out to the SC directly.
Earlier, PML-N leader Awan had filed a petition seeking removal of NAB chairman in light of the issue of levelling money-laundering allegations against former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif.
The petition stated that Iqbal had tarnished Sharif’s political career before the upcoming general elections on grounds of baseless allegations. It added that the bureau explicitly showed biasness against a leader under Iqbal’s supervision.
Awan in his petition had urged that NAB chairman renders a formal apology to Nawaz Sharif for releasing unsubstantiated content.
Nawaz had earlier served a legal notice to Javed Iqbal over defamation, challenging him to present evidence of the leveled accusations.
Previously, NAB had served a legal notice to Sharif to explain the money laundering allegations.
However, Iqbal had responded that to Sharif’s remarks that accountability will be upheld as it was not a crime.
