January 18, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 17: AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan on Friday said that the accountability was a consistent process which should continue at all costs, but there should not be any victimisation in the exercise.

He was speaking at a meeting on the accountability drive in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The prime minister had called the meeting two days after his much-publicised sitting with the AJK president, who was sceptical about the government claims on the accountability drive.

Sardar Sikandar stressed at the meeting that there should not be any impression that the Ehtesab Bureau was something separate from the government or that it was an institution for revenge. The bureau was established through an act of the assembly, he added.

The government, he said, believed in a transparent and impartial process of accountability that should be conducted with retrospective effect.

Referring to his recent meeting with Mr Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, leader of the opposition in the AJK assembly, he said Mr Mahmood was of the view that the accountability should not be held of the bygone years. “But I told him that if this is done, the bureau will lose its utility,” he said, adding that he wanted the process be initiated from 1985, when his previous tenure as prime minister had begun.

The premier said he had also made it very clear during his first meeting with the government officials that if any of his directives was found against the law or rules, it must not be carried out or the relevant files be sent back to him for review.

The AJK premier said he had never interfered in the working of the Ehtesab Bureau and had no intention to do so in future because he believed that institutions should be at liberty to exercise the powers vested with them.

However, he said he had constituted a committee to suggest necessary amendments in the Ehtesab Bureau Act, under the chairmanship of law minister, and the body would submit its report within a month after consulting all the people concerned.

The Ehtesab Bureau chairman also spoke on the occasion.

According to a participant, the meeting also discussed measures to remove procedural flaws in the working of the bureau. The prime minister directed the AJK chief secretary to maintain a close liaison with the bureau and provide it with assistance as and where required.

AJK Law Minister Raja Nisar Ahmed Khan, Chief Secretary Shahid Rafi, Law Secretary Raja Niaz Ahmed, Secretary Services Raja Farooq Niaz, Secretary Finance Mukhtar Ahmed Khan and the Ehtesab Bureau’s acting chairman attended the meeting, besides other officials.