ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Law Parliamentary Committee on Friday endorsed a proposal to replace the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with a new commission designed to be more powerful and less controversial.
The third meeting of the committee, chaired by Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid, agreed that controversial provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), such as plea bargains and voluntary returns, will not be incorporated into the new body, to be called the National Accountability Commission (NAC).
The committee approved the decision to limit the NAC chairman’s tenure to three years, instead of the four years enjoyed by the NAB chairman.
It also decided that NAC cases would not only be tried in accountability courts, but also before district and sessions courts.
Speaking to media after the recorded meeting at the Parliamentary House, Minister Hamid said that the committee had further decided on the formation of an Accountability Investigation Agency (AIA) to probe instances of white-collar crime. The agency will work under the NAC, he remarked, adding “suggestions have been sought from the members of the committee regarding scope of investigation of the NAC.”
He said the next meeting would discuss the definition of corruption and corrupt practices. “It is possible there will be some changes in these definitions,” the minister said.
According to sources, the body reviewed accountability laws of various countries, such as Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong.
In a previous meeting, some committee members had urged for changes in the laws in order to promulgate across-the-board accountability, with the aim of bringing army generals and judges under the umbrella of civil anti-corruption bodies.
According to the current laws, NAB and other civilian anti-corruption bodies do not possess the jurisdiction to hold army officials and the judiciary accountable, with both institutions having their own internal accountability systems.
“A decision in this regard will be taken in the next meeting,” Hamid confirmed.
Another measure adopted by the committee focused on enforcing bureaucrats to declare their assets every year, much like politicians, in order for corruption committed by civil servants to be brought into the limelight.
The much debated NAB provisions, namely those regarding plea bargains and voluntary returns in the NAB ordinance, as well as the recent case of former Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani were also discussed during the meeting.
The committee, formed by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on January 5 to amend the NAB laws, was given three months to prepare and present its reports on the controversial NAO.
The government recently made amendments to the NAO along with promulgating a new ordinance, in which it reduced the power of the chairman to approve plea deals. However, the Senate recently struck it down, calling the amendments as being “against basic human rights”.
