The in-camera meeting of committee was held here at the Parliament House with Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid in the chair. He said that although Babar had sent his proposal in a written form, the committee decided that it would be discussed in his presence. In the next meeting, the committee would also discuss the definition of public officeholder, corruption and corrupt practices, he added.
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 minister said that it is yet to be decided whether the jurisdiction of new law would be at federal level or at both federal and provincial levels. The government of Sindh has repealed the NAB law which, according to it, is a violation of the Constitution, he said, adding that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has set up its own Ehtisab Commission. He said the meeting largely cleared pending clauses of the law. The proposed act is aimed at replacing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with National Accountability Commission (NAC).
The parliamentary committee consists of 20 legislators including 13 MNAs and seven senators. Among the MNAs are Lieutenant General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch (retd), Anusha Rahman, Usman Ibrahim, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha, Syed Naveed Qamar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, SA Iqbal Qadri, Naeema Kishwar Khan, Sahibzada Tariqullah and Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao. The committee also included Senators Farhatullah Babar, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Saud Majeed, Javed Abbasi, Azam Khan Swati, Barrister Ali Khan Saif and Daud Khan Achakzai as its members.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017