The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday unanimously passed the National Accountability (Amendment) Act 2019 moved by Pakistan People's Party (PPP) stalwart Farooq Naek as a private member bill, which seeks to amend the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 to ensure that financial offences with minimum limit of Rs 500 million or more are to be prosecuted by the NAB (National Accountability Bureau).
The committee meeting was presided over by Chairman Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The bill would now land in the Senate seeking the Upper House's nod before it would be required to go to National Assembly and seek its passage. If passed by both the Houses, the bill would be signed into law by the President of Pakistan.
Some key amendments which the bill recommends in the NAO 1999 include amendment in Section 5 of NAO 1999 to fix a minimum financial limit for NAB to probe the relevant offences. The Sections 5 (a) and (c) of the NAO 1999 respectively define the accused and assets to be tried under the law but do not prescribe any financial limit for the accused to be proceeded against.
The Section 5 (a) reads, "'Accused' shall include a person in respect of whom there are reasonable grounds to believe, (that he) is or has been involved in the commission of any offence (triable) under this Ordinance or is subject of an investigation (or) inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau, or (any other agency authorised by the National Accountability Bureau in this regard under this Ordinance.)"
The Section 5 (c) reads, "'Assets' means any property owned, controlled by or belonging to any accused, whether directly or indirectly, or held benami in the name of his spouse or relatives or associates, whether within or outside Pakistan which (he) cannot reasonably account (for), or for which (he) cannot prove payment of full and lawful consideration."
The Section 5 (n) reads, "'Offence' means the offences of corruption and corrupt practices (and other offences) as defined in this Ordinance and includes (the offences) specified in the Schedule to this Ordinance."
The bill recommends that after the words "this Ordinance" the words "of the value not less than five hundred million rupees" shall be inserted in the Section 5 (n).
Another key amendment which the National Accountability (Amendment) Act 2019 recommends in NAO 1999 deals with its Section 9. The Section 9 (a) (v) reads, "A holder of a public office, or any other person, is said to commit or to have committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices- if he or any of his dependents or benamidar owns, possesses, or has (acquired) right or title in any (assets or holds irrevocable power of attorney in respect of any assets) or pecuniary resources disproportionate to his known sources of income, which he cannot (reasonably) account for (or maintains a standard of living beyond that which is commensurate with his sources of income)."
In the said section, the bill recommends replacing the words "disproportionate to his known sources of income, which he cannot (reasonably) account for (or maintains a standard of living beyond that which is commensurate with his sources of income)" with the words "which are an outcome of corrupt, dishonest or illegal means."
The bill recommends omission of Sections 9 (b) and 14 from NAO 1999. The statement of objects and reasons of the National Accountability (Amendment) Act 2019 says the NAB courts have been empowered (in the bill) by giving them power to grant bail by deletion of section 9 (b) and further giving them the power to issue summons and warrants as well as take bonds for appearance.
The section 9 (b) reads, "All offences under this Ordinance shall be non-bailable and, notwithstanding anything contained in section 426, 491, 497, 498 and 561 A or any other provision of the code, or any other law for the time being in force no court shall have jurisdiction to grant bail to any person accused of any offence under this Ordinance."
The bill was moved in Senate on September 2 before it was referred to the Senate's Standing Committee on Law and Justice for review in line with the Senate's rules of business and procedures.
The National Accountability (Amendment) Act 2019 has been passed by the Senate committee at a time when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is also set to introduce amendments in the NAO 1999 to ensure that that businessmen and investors are not tried under the NAB laws for any financial wrongdoing and instead, their relevant cases would be dealt with by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Given that PTI is not majority party in the Senate, reports are doing rounds that the government is mulling promulgating a presidential ordinance to amend the NAO 1999.
Last month, Law Minister Farogh Naseem told Business Recorder that the government's foremost priority is to take opposition onboard regarding amendments in the NAB laws. "We will try to first engage the opposition to approve amendments in NAO 1999 through debate in Parliament. But it is our understanding that the opposition does not want any proposed legislation that can give relief to public to become a law," he said.
Comments
Comments are closed.