ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on the National Account­ability Law reviewed on Wednesday the proposed draft of the bill for the creation of the National Accountability Commission (NAC) to replace the National Accountability Bureau.

A meeting of the committee presided over by Law Minister Zahid Hamid agreed that NAC should complete investigation of a case in 60 days, while the NAB completes investigation in 10 months.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi told Dawn after the in-camera meeting that once the case was registered, it should not linger on so that the accused should not face imprisonment without the decision of an accountability court. “It has been observed that the accused are sent behind the bars and NAB delays the investigation,” he added.

Mr Qureshi said the committee also discussed some other articles of the draft NAC bill.

He said the committee wanted to approve each and every article of the proposed bill with consensus so that there should be no opposition when it would be taken to the National Assembly and the Senate.

It was the seventh meeting of the committee and it is believed that a couple of months may be required for complete study of the bill. “We do not want to approve the bill in haste because we want enforcement of comprehensive and fair accountability laws in the country,” he added.

The committee reviewed various sections related to punishment for corruption, disqualification, voluntary return and cognisance of offences under the provisions of the proposed bill.

Talking to media after the meeting, the law minister said: “It has been agreed that after completing the investigation the investigating agency would forward the reference to the NAC. The NAC chairman will have the powers to decide whether to close a case or open it.”

He said the accused would have the right to get bail.

The next meeting of the committee will be held on April 12.

The committee has agreed that controversial provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance — plea bargain and voluntary return — will not be incorporated in NAC laws. It has also agreed that the term of the NAC chairperson will be three years instead of four years of NAB chief.

It has also decided that cases of NAC will not only be tried in accountability courts but also in district and sessions courts.

The committee has already demanded across-the-board accountability to bring army generals and judges under the laws of civil anti-corruption bodies or NAB.

The committee has also agreed that like politicians, bureaucrats should have to declare their assets every year so that corruption if committed by civil servants can be exposed.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2017