ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman (retd) Javed Iqbal has said that while multiple people were sharing a single hospital bed in the country, there were others who were going
abroad, “London or US” for treatment “if they get a cold”.
The anti-graft body Chairman while addressing an event in Islamabad said “Are the rest not humans […] God has created everyone equal,”.
Chairman NAB said that it was unfortunate that a child had died in his mother’s lap due to the unavailability of the rabies vaccine in hospitals. He was referring to a video that went viral on social media in September. It showed a horrific incident in Shikarpur where an 11-year-old child died of rabies in his mother’s lap.
The NAB chairman said that while the child was unable to get the vaccine on time, the budget for the [concerned] government was valued at millions of rupees.
“One province uses its card, the other uses its card. Believe me, this will not have an affect on NAB. NAB has to continue its work,” he said.
The NAB chief appeared to be referring to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh where multiple cases of death due to dog bites have been reported recently along with reports of a shortage of the rabies vaccine.
During his address, Iqbal said that he was not complaining about the criticism levelled against NAB. He, however, urged the people of Pakistan not look at NAB’s actions from the perspective of those who are on the accountability watchdog’s radar and facing NAB cases.
“Almost every person, who is on NAB’s radar, against whom there is a reference in court, against whom inquiries have been started [..] or investigations have been started, won’t say good things about NAB,” he said.
The watchdog, particularly over the last one year, has come under criticism by PML-N and PPP for what the political parties call ‘selected accountability’ of their leadership in connivance with the ruling PTI.
