ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition on Monday requisitioned a session of the parliament to discuss recent amendments by the government to the country’s accountability law, which they said are discriminatory and bound to favor the ruling party’s allies.
The government has passed the amendments through a presidential ordinance, which may remain effective for a period of 120 days. The government will have to table the ordinance in the parliament after the period to extend it or pass it into law.
The amendments in the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) have excluded businessmen, bureaucrats and other private persons from being investigated by the country’s top anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
“These amendments are discriminatory and intended to benefit only friends and close allies of the ruling party,” Senator Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, chairman of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) told Arab News on Monday. “We totally reject these amendments.”
Haq said the opposition had requested a parliament session to discuss the changes and would “push the government” to do proper legislation on it instead of “secretly benefiting a few” with the presidential ordinance.
On Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan assured the Pakistani business community at a Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) event in Karachi that the country’s antigraft body will no longer endanger their operations.
“It was important to take this step as NAB was considered a major hurdle,” the premier said on the day the amendments were approved by the federal cabinet.
The text of the controversial ordinance signed by President Arif Alvi was released by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Saturday.
Imran Shafique, a former NAB prosecutor, said the government has narrowed the scope of the anti-corruption agency through the amendments, by allowing it to investigate public office holders only, in contrast with the previous law which was applicable to “public office holder or any other person.”
“The NAB is virtually made toothless through the amendments,” he told Arab News, adding that in accordance with the new law “it will be almost impossible for NAB to prove a corruption or misuse of authority case in a court of law.”
The NAO was promulgated in 1999 under military ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s government. The country’s main opposition parties – the PMLN and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – say that over the years the law has been used to victimize their leaders and fragment their parties and support bases.
Shafique said the new law would benefit over a dozen of people whose cases have already been pending in accountability courts for adjudication. “Businessmen and bureaucrats used to complain of harassment by NAB,” he added.
Meanwhile, businessmen say the new law would help end an “environment of fear” and bring investment into different sectors. “This was one of our longstanding demands that businessmen should be excluded from NAB’s purview,” Mirza Ikthiar Baig, renowned industrialist, told Arab News.
Baig said that if a businessman would commit any wrong, he would be held accountable by the Federal Board of Revenue and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. “In case of tax evasion or any other fraud, these institutions can investigate a businessman,” he said, “the NAB was doing nothing except harassing the business community.”
According to the ordinance, all pending inquiries and investigations into cases related to taxation, levies or impost will be transferred to “the respective authorities or departments which administer the relevant laws of taxation, levies or imposts in question,” while all pending trials will be transferred “from the relevant accountability courts to the criminal courts which deal with offenses under the respective laws pertaining to taxation, levies or imposts in question.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan came to power in July 2018, vowing to root out corruption. Recent probes by the NAB into veteran politicians – including former premiers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and ex-President Asif Ali Zardari – have been a topic of heated debate, with many saying the drive is hurting an ailing economy and others pointing to a one-sided purge of political foes.
In response to the criticism by members of the opposition, Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday that NAB was fully independent in its action and investigation. He said the government will welcome the opposition’s proposals and recommendations to further strengthen the anti-corruption law.
