Tayyaba Gul allegations: PM Shehbaz fails to take action against Javed Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Two days after Public Accounts Committee (PAC) took up the Tayyaba Gul case, Prime Minister Shehbaz failed to take any action against the former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman and the head of the missing persons’ commission Javed Iqbal.

A woman named Tayyaba Gul had alleged that she was kept at the Prime Minister’s House for 45 days as the former premier Imran Khan was afraid that she would provide evidence to Geo News against the ex-NAB chairman when the watchdog arrested Mir Shakilur Rehman. She was taken hostage in the house and her mobile phone was taken from her, she alleged.

Tayyaba Gul alleged that the former prime minister had obtained her videos against Iqbal and closed his NAB cases, promising her to provide justice by keeping her at the PM House for 1.5 months.

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After Gul’s allegations, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended PM Shehbaz Sharif remove justice (retired) Javed Iqbal, as the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (missing persons’ commission).

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was established in 2011 and Iqbal, who was also the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) until recently, has been heading it since then. In 2019, Gul was involved in a leaked video clip showing alleged clandestine and illicit relations between her and Iqbal, according to Dawn News.

Gul, and her husband, Mohammad Farooq, were facing inquiries in NAB when the scandal surfaced. Later, NAB had filed a reference against them before an accountability court in Lahore.

Last month, it was reported that she submitted an application with PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan, seeking inquiry against Iqbal, NAB Lahore DG retired Maj Shahzad Saleem and other officials of the bureau for implicating her in a corruption reference.

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The former NAB chairman chose to skip the PAC session which was reviewing the alleged video scandal involving Iqbal.

However, PM Sharif did not take any action against Iqbal so far in light of Gul’s revelations before the PAC led by Noor Alam Khan which raised many eyebrows.

Sources told News360 that PM Sharif’s silence on the issue was not meaningless as he could not take any action against Iqbal. They said that Javed Iqbal has the backing of some powerful personalities which stopped the present government to take strict action against him after removing him from his position.