Senator and minister for Law and Justice Farooq H. Naek on Saturday said elections would be held on time, despite Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri's petition for reconstitution of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Speaking at a seminar on "Curbing Corruption in the Public Sector", which was jointly organised by National Accountability Bureau and Transparency International - Pakistan at local hotel here, he said, "Qadri's plea for reconstitution of ECP has been accepted by Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) which would hopefully decide the case within days. Therefore, there is no chance of delay in elections".
He said talks between prime minister and leaders of opposition for caretaker setup should be initiated before March 16, 2013 and added that the Qadri's recommendations would also be incorporated to find out suitable person for caretaker setup. Earlier, in his speech Naek said corruption has now become a global issue and it must be highlighted but with concrete evidence. He said the accountability mechanism should be transparent and no one should be allowed to use it for political victimisation.
He said incumbent government has enhanced the role of NAB, besides strengthening the functioning of standing committees to deal with the affairs of the state in more transparent manner. Moreover, he said that after 18th amendment, accounts of provincial authorities could be audited by the Auditor General of Pakistan.
Replying to Engr Abdul Jabbar regarding the remarks of SC on NAB's performance and its capacity building, Naek said role of NAB has now been enhanced and the government does not interfere in its matters. He said the government is striving to move the affairs in right direction and added that proposal of mobile courts has been floated to dispose of the backlog of pending cases.
Syed Adil Gilani, advisor, TI Pakistan cited that the plea bargain has resulted in escalation of corruption in society from millions to billions. He said that there is no plea bargain culture in China but they hang, if any one was found guilty in corruption case. He said that every contractor has to pay heavy percentage of commission to get public contracts because of prevalence of a highly corrupt system and added that if sincere efforts were taken by the authorities, elimination of corruption would be possible.
Gilani further said that if authority was keen to maintain transparency in the affairs of NAB, suitable amendments have to be made in the laws to put regulators accountable before legislators. Admiral (R) Fasih Bokhari, Chairman, NAB while acknowledging the recommendations of Mr Arshad Zuberi said the authority would consider constituting a committee of secretaries and added that secretaries would be invited for comments for the purpose. He said the bureau is putting its best to produce maximum results. Earlier, Chairman TI Pakistan Sohail Muzaffar in his address highlighted the role of TI in Pakistan.