ISLAMABAD: The controversial appointment of Irfan Qadir as National Accountability Bureau’s prosecutor general may take a new turn in the wake of reports that the appointment was made without consultation with the NAB chairman at that time.

According to sources close to former NAB chief Nawid Ahsan, President Asif Ali Zardari did not consult him while appointing the prosecutor general although the NAB Ordinance 1999 required him to do so. The ordinance says: “The President of Pakistan, in consultation with the Chairman NAB, may appoint any person, who is qualified to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, as Prosecutor General Accountability.”

Mr Ahsan reportedly opposed the appointment of Mr Qadir as head of the NAB legal team. In a letter he wrote and planned to send to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, he is reported to have said that he had not been consulted in the matter. But he was sacked before he could send the letter to the chief justice.

Mr Qadir, who has earlier served in the same capacity, has replaced Danishwar Malik, a man trusted by the former NAB chairman.

Khawaja Harris, the counsel for Harris Steel Mill in the Rs9 billion Bank of Punjab loan scam case, has also challenged the re-appointment of Mr Qadir. He had argued before a three-judge SC bench hearing the case that the tenure of prosecutor general was not extendable and he could not be reappointed after completion of his three-year term.

Mr Qadir completed his three-year term on Dec 3, 2006, during the Musharraf government. Section 8(a) of the NAB Ordinance says that the prosecutor general “shall hold office for a non-extendable period of three years”.

Mr Qadir, however, argued that his reappointment was not a continuation of his earlier term. He termed it a fresh appointment which had nothing to do with his previous service.

This is the first time since the establishment of NAB in 1999 that the bureau is without a chairman and its deputy chairman is functioning as its acting chief.

Legal experts are of the opinion that the appointment is part of a plan to bury all corruption references revived after the Dec 16 judgment of the Supreme Court against the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

They also believe that the appointment of Mr Qadir as prosecutor general and that of Javed Zia Qazi, a customs officer with little known service record, as deputy chairman is part of the same government plan to take over the bureau.