A draft bill of proposed amendments to existing law of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is likely to be presented in the upcoming session of the National Assembly, it is learnt. According to sources, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and opposition parties have agreed to amend existing NAB law. For this purpose, the Ministry of Law and Justice has prepared a draft of the amendments to the existing NAB law.
The sources said that the amended law suggests restrictions on blanket powers of chairman NAB. The law proposes withdrawal of plea bargain powers from the NAB and it will be deemed in future as part of the acceptance of offence. The draft further purposes to curtail existing 90 days period of NAB's remand to 14 days.
The sources said that the opposition parties also proposed amendment to constitute a parliamentary committee to make the decisions, in case the accused is a parliamentarian. It is also proposed that a special commission should be tasked to first view the evidence against any accused in case the accused is not a parliamentarian.
They said if the parliamentary committee/commission is satisfied with the evidence available with the NAB, the Bureau may arrest the accused lawmaker or any ordinary person; however, if the parliamentary committee/special commission is not satisfied, the NAB should not be allowed to arrest the accused.
The opposition also proposed that there should be a timeframe for the NAB to conclude any case. It is suggested that there should be specific timelines for the NAB to complete an inquiry, investigation and trial of the accused.
While talking to Business Recorder, senior leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Syed Naveed Qamar said that his party is ready to cooperate with the PTI government for bringing amendment to the existing NAB law. He said, "We would consider the draft of bill carefully as the party wants to bring some 18-20 amendments to the bill."
"We want across the board accountability and no victimisation of political opponents. If the government supports our amendments, we'll definitely support the bill," he added. He said that his party is ready to support the government for legislation if it seriously wants to change the accountability law. He said that a lot of work has already been done during the past 10 years and those drafts could also be considered while reviewing the NAB laws.
While talking to Business Recorder, constitutional expert and prominent lawyer Wasim Sajjad said that there is a need of three major amendments to NAB law which include: 'burden of proof should not be on the accused; the 90-day remand period should be brought down to 14 days; and Section 25 (a) of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, which deals with voluntary return or plea bargain must be eliminated.
He said that 90-day remand is a major lacuna which is often misused to force people to plea bargain even with their life-time savings to get rid of the case. He said that the clause pertaining to plea bargain empowers the NAB chairman to allow voluntary return during inquiry and clear the accused of all charges. This is a big flaw in the law as the chairman NAB has the power to allow the accused, during the trial or pendency of the appeal, and not the court, to determine the quantum of return of assets or gains, he said.
Taking to Business Recorder, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan said that the NAB law is a draconian law and it should be changed.
He said that the PTI government would not change the NAB law. He claimed that the PTI government and NAB are two sides of the same coin. He also claimed that the PTI government is using NAB for political victimisation. He said that the NAB is not taking action against the people sitting in the government.
Answering a question, Mushahid said, "There is no accountability across the board. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar is holding meetings with the officials of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB."
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had already invited the opposition parties to suggest changes in the NAB laws if they had any complaint about the Bureau which has been functioning under a chairman nominated by the PPP and PML-N. The minister had assured the opposition members that the government would welcome their positive suggestions and was ready to amend the laws.
The country's two major parties - the PPP and the PML-N - had through a famous Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in London in 2006 agreed to abolish NAB and replace it with a new institution - National Accountability Commission (NAC).
The PPP government under the then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had moved a bill seeking to establish NAC in 2009, but the bill could not be passed due to failure of the government and opposition PML-N to reach consensus on its draft. Though the two parties had agreed on most of the clauses of the proposed bill, they failed to resolve differences on petty issues.
Similarly, when the PML-N assumed power in 2013, it also made a move to replace NAB with NAC, but again both the parties failed to fulfil their commitment under the CoD.
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