Tuesday, October 18, 2011

PML-N’s opposition to NAB chief subsides

By Muhammad Akram

LAHORE: The PML-N’s initial opposition to the appointment of former navy chief Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari as the National Accountability Bureau chairman appears to have subsided as a crucial consultative meeting of the party on the matter slated for Monday in Islamabad was deferred without giving a next date, informed party sources told Daily Times on Monday.

The newly appointed NAB chairman took the charge of his office in haste on Sunday night after the official of the Ministry of Law issued a notification of his appointment late in the evening.

According to the PML-N sources, the party has perhaps made up its mind not to press hard its opposition to the appointment of Fasih Bokhari since it has nothing concrete to offer on the issue despite the technicalities over the appointment it initially raised and subsequently addressed by President Asif Ali Zardari in his letter to the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

About the deferment of the PML-N consultative meeting over the appointment of NAB chairman, the sources said the opposition leader had informed the party President Nawaz Sharif about his hectic schedule due to which he was unable to preside over the meeting.

The sources said the PML-N president directed Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to evolve a party strategy over the issue and inform him before his departure for mass contact campaign in southern Punjab.

With the PML-N’s objections answered, the knowledgeable observers see no practical and meaningful opposition to the appointment of the chairman NAB.

The PML-N’s initial opposition to the appointment mere on technical grounds and confusing his name with someone else to accuse him of corruption and later retraction of words was sufficient ground for the party to accept the appointment, the observers said.

They said that Fasih Bokhari’s appointment to the office of the NAB chairman could have been a smooth sailing since he was a not a controversial figure like many of his colleagues in the armed forces in the wake of tumultuous happenings surrounding Kargil war.

Fasih Bokhari’s appointment as the NAB chief is non-political since he did not participate in active politics since his retirement in 1999 that came in the wake of questioning the rationale behind the Kargil war launched by a coterie of military generals led by Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf without taking into confidence the leadership of other forces, including the Pakistan Navy.

In fact, the political observers opine Fasih Bokhari stands tall among the lot of his competitors in the armed forces for raising fundamental questions/objections over the launching of Kargil operation, that has largely been dubbed as the most ill-conceived military operation in the history of wars.

The observers said the lacunas and technical hitches that surfaced in the appointment of the NAB chairman though should have been avoided on the part of the government as the same provided an opportunity to the opposition, which seems hell-bent on opposing every single move of the government to make the matter controversial.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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