The jurists feel that this is an extra-ordinary favor to the military junta since NAB Chairman's appointment by the President, in consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, would make him more powerful than he is today and of course without having the academic and judicial qualification a Supreme Court judge is lawfully required to have. His tenure has been fixed to three years and his removal made conditional to the same as a Judge of the Supreme Court. This interprets to mean that he will be subject to the discipline of the Supreme Judicial Council or resigns himself by writing to the President. The Judges have also extended this cover to the incumbent Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau from the date he assumed the office. This, they observed, was necessary to provide continuity to the process.
Jurists have reasons to describe it as a big joke and ultra vires of the Constitution.
One senior advocate on anonymity said that there could not be a bigger slap than this in the face of independence of judiciary when a prosecutor is allowed to sit in judgment over his own acts of omission and commission. The present accountability exercise has been described by politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen as one-sided and selective. In this context, there have been references to serious cases of corruption highlighted by the press in which members of top military hierarchy have been accused of high corruption-enormous in size and proportion than others. He and others have even leveled serious charges of abuse of his position against the present NAB Chairman. They say that the alleged corruption through kickbacks and commissions in defense deals by Admiral Mansoorul Haq is just the tip of the iceberg.