September 04, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 3, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Farooq H. Naek said in the Senate on Wednesday that the government did not believe in political victimisation and had not initiated any case against Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif or any member of their family.

In response to a point raised by Senator Saadia Abbasi of the PML-N, the minister said that the cases against Nawaz Sharif had been reopened by the NAB prosecutor general and he had asked the NAB chairman to find out who was responsible for it.He said the cabinet had decided at a recent meeting to dissolve the NAB, but the Schedule 6 of the Constitution was a hurdle because envisaged that the operative part of the 17th Amendment could not be changed without the consent of the president.

Mr Naek said there was a need to amend the law for special courts and the government wanted regular courts to hear cases against politicians.

He said the Nawaz Sharif government had in 1997 set up the Ehtesab Bureau which followed the policy of political vendetta. Asif Ali Zardari had to move from one city to the other to attend courts hearing cases registered against him by the Ehtesab Bureau.

He said the National Reconciliation Ordinance was promulgated after none of the cases against Mr Zardari pending for over 11 years could be proved.

He said the government planned to introduce a law stipulating that if case was not decided within a certain period it would stand terminated.

Senator Abbasi said that the house had unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon the government to disband the ‘infamous’ NAB, but this was not done and now ‘outdated and baseless’ cases had been reopened against the PML-N leadership.

She said that although the PML-N was concerned about the move, Mr Sharif had asked its leaders not to indulge in mudslinging.