ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Aftab Sultan has tendered his resignation from the post, Geo News reported on Tuesday after reportedly refusing to “toe the line”. 

He was appointed as head of the anti-graft chief on July 21, 2022 for three years.

The sources revealed that the NAB chairman had also met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who accepted his resignation.

Speaking to Geo News, Sultan said that he had resigned from office a few days ago. “I was asked to do certain things which were not acceptable to me,” Aftab Sultan said.

“I told them that I cannot continue with the conditions. My resignation has been accepted and it comes to an end on a positive note,” he said. “Prime Minister expressed good wishes for me, I also have good wishes for him.”

The sources revealed that Sultan had refused to make arrests of politicians on someone’s orders.

“He was pressurised by the government and some other institutions in the last four months to register cases against the people of their choice and arrest them,” they further said.

Sultan, according to the source, had also withdrawn the arrest powers from NAB director-generals (DGs) to avoid misuse of authority by the officials. 

He was brought in by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government after Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal’s tenure ended last year.

It may be pointed out here that Aftab Sultan also served as Punjab Police IG and later he was appointed as Director General of the Intelligence Bureau and was holding the same post when the PTI staged the 2014 sit-in in Islamabad.

Earlier, he had also served as director-general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) during the tenure of then-prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

A NAB reference was also approved against him and he remained a co-accused with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif over alleged irregularity in the purchase of vehicles in the name of the Saarc conference.

The NAB did not file the reference. Former foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry was also a co-accused and they were facing charges of causing a loss of Rs1.95 billion to the national exchequer.