The Parliamentary Committee tasked to review the National Accountability Law is still undecided about bringing judges and generals under the ambit of proposed accountability law as well as its territorial jurisdiction.
Minister for Law and Justice, Zahid Hamid, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary panel, told reporters after the meeting that the committee has discussed in detail the proposal of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar regarding accountability of judges and generals. "The issue is very sensitive and, therefore, the committee has decided that members will give their point of view over the matter after consultation with their top leadership," he said.
The in-camera meeting of the committee was held here at the Parliament House with Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid in the chair. The existing National Accountability Ordinance, promulgated by military dictator General Pervez Musharraf (retd) in 1999, covered public officeholders, civil servants, politicians and even civilians but exempted the personnel of armed forces as well as judges of superior courts. The proposed act is aimed at replacing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with National Accountability Commission (NAC).
He said the committee also discussed the retrospective effect of proposed NAB law. The existing NAB Ordinance 1999 is with a retrospective effect, taking cognizance of offences since 1985, he said, adding that some of the members proposed that retrospective effect period of proposed accountability law should be considered for the last 15 years. Hamid said the committee also discussed deletion of willful default as an offence from the proposed law. The committee was assured that the same offence will be included in the banking law - "the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) (Amendment) Bill - and then the proceedings of willful default cases will be held in banking courts under the same law, instead of accountability courts.