The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have expressed concerns over the appointment of Justice(retd) Azmat Saeed, as head of Inquiry Commission to investigate the Broadsheet scandal.

In a joint statement, PBC Vice-Chairman Khushdil Khan and SCBA President Abdul Latif Afridi said that former Supreme Court (SC) Justice Azmat served as a Deputy Prosecutor General of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during General Pervez Musharaf regime when the anti-corruption watchdog signed a contract with Broadsheet.

Therefore, he should not accept his appointment as he may not be able to maintain his neutrality while acting as the Inquiry Commission head.

The PBC and SCBA representatives also pointed out that Azmat had been an active member of the Panama case bench, thus, his impartiality in the case will be questionable.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had decided to appoint Justice(r) Azmat Saeed as chief of the Broadsheet inquiry commission after the federal cabinet decided to hold a thorough investigation into the Broadsheet scandal in order to expose the elements involved in looting the national wealth.

It is pertinent to mention that opposition parties, especially PML-N and PPP, have raised strong objections against the appointment citing a conflict of interest.

Senior PML-N leader and former Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, while speaking to a GEO, said that the way the PTI government is handling the Broadsheet saga 'is nothing less of a joke'. Ahsan said that former SC justice was invited to join the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital's Board of Governors after his retirement by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Therefore, he should refuse to accept the appointment.

Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, a senior leader of the PPP, said the appointment of Azmat Saeed shows the government is dishonest and wants to distort the facts.

PML-N's vice president Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday advised Azmat Saeed to step down as the head of an inquiry committee probing Boradsheet scandal. She alleged that former SC justice was part of conspiracy against the then elected government and therefore unfit to chair the probe commission.