October 18, 2003	Saturday	Sha'aban 21, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has condemned the assertion of the NAB spokesman that generals and judges would not make their assets and liabilities public as there was no law in this regard.

“If the law requires the legislators to declare and make public their assets, why its reach should not be extended to the generals, judges and senior bureaucrats,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement here on Friday.

He said: “Application of the law to legislators and exempting other segments of the society equally prone to corruption is discriminatory and robs the law of its moral force and authority.

“The PPP will continue to expose the corruption of the powerful in the junta and try them before the bar of public opinion even if there is no law on the statute to hold them accountable and try them.”

He said the reasoning advanced by the NAB spokesman that other important segments of the society had built-in systems of accountability and therefore did not need to be brought under the purview of the law for legislators was spurious and self-serving.

“If this argument is accepted then why the bureaucracy is tried under special laws even while an inbuilt mechanism for checking corruption in it is already in place. And, why legislators should be tried under special laws when a built-in accountability mechanism and anti-corruption laws are already in place,” he added.

“The PPP demands that generals, judges and bureaucrats in grades 21 and above should also be brought within the purview of the law on declaration and making public their assets as is the case with the legislators,” Mr Babar said.