ISLAMABAD: The government has appointed a former director general of the country's anti-graft body as Prime Minister Imran Khan's advisor on accountability and interior, local media reported on Wednesday.
Brigadier (r) Musaddiq Abbasi served Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on various posts in Karachi, Peshawar and Islamabad.
According to a notification circulated by the Cabinet Division, President Arif Alvi appointed him on the advice of the prime minister to replace the country's previous accountability tsar Shahzad Akbar who resigned from his post earlier this week.
"In exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (1) of Article 93 of the Constitution [...], the president, on the advice of the prime minister, has been pleased to appoint Brig (retired) Musaddiq Abbasi as advisor to the prime minister on accountability and interior with immediate effect," Dawn quoted the official notification.
Abbasi's predecessor played a major role in pursuing money laundering cases against the prime minister's principal rival Nawaz Sharif along with other opposition leaders.
While stepping down from his post on Monday, Akbar said in a Twitter post he hoped the process of accountability would continue under the present administration as per the manifesto of the ruling party.
Akbar's resignation was followed by Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index that demonstrated a significant rise in public distrust in Pakistan toward the government's anti-corruption efforts.
The index showed that Pakistan had dropped 16 spots to 140 in the ranking of 180 countries and was widely viewed as an indication that corruption had increased under the present administration despite its political rhetoric to end financial embezzlements and bring back the country's looted wealth stashed abroad.