Musaddiq replaces Shahzad as accountability adviser

ISLAMABAD: The government has appointed the former director-general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Brigadier (Retd) Musaddiq Abbasi as the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability, Geo News reported Wednesday.

According to a notification issued in this regard, Abbasi will replace former adviser Mirza Shahzad Akbar who resigned from the post on January 24.

“I have tendered my resignation today to PM as Adviser. I sincerely hope the process of accountability continues under [the] leadership of PM IK as per PTI’s manifesto. I will remain associated with the party [and] keep contributing as a member of the legal fraternity,” Akbar wrote on Twitter.

A former deputy prosecutor for the NAB, Akbar was appointed as the special assistant to the prime minister on accountability in August 2018. Later, in December 2019, he was also given an additional portfolio of adviser to the prime minister on interior affairs. In July 2020, the barrister was promoted as the adviser to the prime minister on accountability and interior with the status of a federal minister. Earlier in the day, the President of Pakistan Arif Alvi also accepted the resignation of the former SAPM. The cabinet division issued a notification in this regard after the president’s approval.