Legislation related to FATF, NAB: Joint opposition ends cooperation with govt

ISLAMABAD: Boycotting the parliamentary panel on legislative business, the joint opposition Tuesday, ended its cooperation with the government on key legislation related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) due to alleged "ill intention" of the PTI government.

Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the sub-committee of the parliamentary committee on legislative business, leaders of the joint opposition including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Khawaja Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Senator Sherry Rehman and Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and others also announced that now discussion on the draft proposed four bills would be held at the all-parties conference (APC), the date of which was being discussed.

Abbasi said that the government had sought to unanimously pass four bills from both the houses of the parliament that included some amendments to the two anti-terrorism laws, amendment in the UNSC, 1948 Act, and amendments to the NAB Ordinance.

He said that the opposition extended a helping hand in "best national interest" in light of the Supreme Court's directives.

Abbasi said that a parliamentary committee was also constituted on those bills, which he called a unique precedent in the country's history except for the one, which was set up for the 18th constitutional amendment.

He said that during the discussions, it was agreed that all the four bills would be passed in the current National Assembly session followed by presenting in the Senate.

"One proposed amendment from the government side to the anti-terrorism act was such a dangerous amendment that we clearly conveyed to the government that if it was passed Pakistan will no longer be a democratic country, but [would turn into] a worst form of dictatorial regime," Abbasi said, adding that the amendment was withdrawn after strong resistance from the opposition.

On the bill related to the UN Security Council, he said that an amendment from the opposition was accepted, while on another anti-terrorism act, the opposition had shared an amendment, which was under discussion. On the NAB bill, he said that the government had presented a draft twice, in which a draft bill aimed at extension of services of the chairman NAB, vice chairman and prosecutor general was also presented in the committee.

After resistance from the opposition, the particular draft related to extension in services was withdrawn, he said.

He said that an additional proposed amendment was also presented, which was in complete contrast to the Qanoon-e-Shahadat [Law of evidence], which the opposition rejected.

Abbasi said that it was agreed that a clause-by-clause discussion would be held in the panel on the remaining amendments proposed amendments to the NAB laws with a view to finalise a new amended NAB law.

However, he deplored that the government refused to accept the amendments presented by the opposition in the NAB laws, in light of the Supreme Court's directions and guidelines by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII).

He further said that they also asked the government side to specifically identify the amendment, which was not acceptable to them.

However, they did not come up with any response.

"We just conveyed that if you are not holding discussion on the proposed amendments in good faith, then we cannot proceed further on it. Now there is no possibility for further discussion and the government is not ready to discuss the amendments in the good faith, therefore, we think they don't have an intention of ...in best national interest. So, we walked out from the committee," Abbasi said.

He further said that the matter would now be referred to the APC, where the leadership of the opposition parties would come up with a joint line of action.

"Another proposed bill, which has been presented in the National Assembly by the government related to economic terrorism is such a "horrific" bill, you cannot see it in the history of Pakistan," he added.

Sherry Rehman said on the occasion that the PPP agreed with the PML-N's point of view. She further said that the opposition parties made efforts in best national interest since the day the current parliament was elected.

The PPP leader said that the discussion would now be held in the APC, adding that the PPP had a clear stance that it was ready to hold talks with any party on the issue of national interest whether it was national security or security of the people.

She said that the PPP expected that the matter was resolved as per the requirement of the FATF.

To a question, she said that there was no further justification of the parliamentary committee, adding that the standing committees of the two houses were quite functional where both the opposition and the government had representation for holding discussion on the proposed bills. "We will see, which bill they are going to pass," she added.

Minister for Law Farogh Naseem, while talking to reporters, said that there was a deadlock in the committee following certain amendments of the opposition to the NAB laws were not considered. He said that the opposition wanted that the NAB should not make arrest till allegations were proved that the NAB laws should be applicable from November 16, 1999.

He said that the opposition's amendments were in contrast to the PTI government's anti-corruption campaign.

He also accused the opposition of pushing the FATF laws to the backburner.

He announced that the government would bring the laws related to the FATF in the parliament, adding that three bills related to the FATF had been drafted.

"If Pakistan does not pass these bills into laws, the FATF will not remove Pakistan from its grey list," the law minister added.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Barrister Shehzad Akbar said that the government could not give in return what the opposition had been demanding in response to its cooperation on the FATF laws.

"The 35 amendments proposed by the opposition means closure of the NAB...Prime Minister Imran Khan's position is very clear that there will be no compromise on accountability," he said, adding that opposition wanted the accountability process to close.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020