ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Monday witnessed a rare unanimity in the views of the senators from across the divide when all the speakers during a debate lashed out at National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for its alleged failure in curbing corruption from the country and called for an immediate review of the NAB Ordinance.

Speaking on a motion moved by parliamentary leader of the PPP Saeed Ghani seeking discussion on the “overall performance of NAB”, a number of senators termed the NAB ordinance a “black law” and opposed the provision of “plea bargain” in it.

Initiating the debate, Mr Ghani alleged that there were 13 NAB officers, including directors general (DGs) of all the four provinces, who had been working against higher grades for many years in violation of the procedure and without the prime minister’s approval.

“NAB is playing with the law,” he said, alleging that a person against whom the Bureau had been carrying out investigations for doing corruption of Rs18 billion had now been appointed as NAB’s financial adviser.

Former law minister in the previous PPP government Farooq Naek called for strengthening institutions instead of individuals. He regretted that NAB laws had never been placed before the parliament.

He accused NAB of victimising politicians. He suggested that a committee of the house should be formed to review NAB laws and finalise its recommendations within 15 days.

Another PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar accused NAB of doing selective accountability, saying that there were “sacred cows” in the country on which NAB could not put its hands.

Javed Abbasi of the PML-N said it was the need of hour to revisit the NAB Ordinance whereas another member of the ruling party Abdul Qayyum called for abolishing the provision of plea bargain.

PML-N’s Nehal Hashmi reminded the Senate that when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had warned NAB against exceeding its powers, he was criticised by the opposition.

Usman Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PkMAP) alleged that NAB had become an institution to validate corruption and theft and to malign politicians.

Another former law minister of the PPP regime Babar Awan reminded that the PPP and the PML-N through the Charter of Democracy had agreed to bring reforms in NAB laws.

Winding up the debate, Law Minister Zahid Hamid said overall NAB’s performance had improved in recent years and it had addressed 90 per cent complaints, besides making a recovery of Rs275 billion since its inception.

Mr Hamid, however, agreed that there was a need to reform the NAB laws.

ARTICLE 6: While taking up a constitution amendment bill moved by Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq seeking to bring all those government officials under the ambit of treason law who would show leniency in implementation of the constitution, Chairman Raza Rabbani asked Law Minister Zahid Hamid to abolish Article 6 from the constitution when it could not be applied on dictators.

The law minister said he had seen such a statement of Mr Rabbani in the newspapers also, but prayed that “God forbid, Article 6 should ever be repealed.”

Mr Haq’s bill was later rejected by the house through voice vote.

BOL TV: During a discussion on a motion moved by PPP’s Taj Haider on “the situation arising out of the closure of Bol Media Group as a consequence of action against an IT company,” almost all the speakers called for lifting of ban on the Bol television channel. The members were of the view that the government’s swift action merely on the basis of a news report appeared in a foreign newspaper had rendered thousands of journalists jobless.

Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid said that cancellation of licence of Bol channel had nothing to do with the affairs of Axact. Rather it was cancelled for not adopting the proper procedure.

The minister said the information ministry had written a letter to the interior ministry for taking steps to release salary of journalists of Bol channel from its frozen accounts.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2016