KARACHI: As the Sindh government on Thursday officially ended the jurisdiction of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance (NAO) 1999 in the province notifying the Accountability Act that was passed by the provincial assembly last month, the opposition parties joined hands and decided to approach the high court to challenge the new law.

While talking to reporters at the Sindh Assembly, Law Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar announced that NAB could not take action against provincial departments, as the NAB 1999 Sindh Repeal bill 2017 had become law after his ministry’s notification.

“After the implementation of the provincial accountability agency law, all cases would be transferred to accountability courts,” he declared.

“The repeal bill passed by the Sindh Assembly had become law, thus the role of NAB in provincial departments [has come] to an end. We firmly believe that after the establishment of the provincial accountability agency, corruption could be curbed much better and [in an] effective way. It would be an independent institution.”

NAB’s jurisdiction over provincial bodies comes to an end

In a major policy decision, the Sindh government last month tabled a bill in the provincial assembly’s session to repeal the applicability of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999 in the province and taking advantage of its numerical strength in the assembly, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party managed to get the controversial bill passed to repeal the applicability of the NAO, 1999.

The bill became law after Thursday’s notification despite Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair’s refusal to sign it. Although Mr Lanjar sounded confident about the effectiveness of the law and its utility to curb corruption in the province, his statements fell short of convincing the opposition parties, which had developed consensus against the PPP government’s move on this issue.

“We are very clear that this law introduced by the PPP government is based on its ill intentions,” said Faisal Sabzwari of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-Pakistan). “There are 600 corruption cases against officials of the Sindh government. So one can understand what really pushed the PPP government to bring such law. This exercise is meant to protect its own corruption, but we are not going to give up here. We would take them to court.”

The new law means that NAB can no longer conduct inquiries or investigations into the affairs of departments or autonomous bodies being controlled by the provincial government. The law is expected to benefit scores of politicians belonging to the ruling party and government officials as their cases or inquiries would be transferred from NAB and accountability courts to the Anti-Corruption Establishment and Provincial Anti-Corruption Courts, respectively. The ACE is already under opposition parties’ radar and the fresh move to cut NAB’s role strengthens their arguments.

“We would do our best to challenge this law,” said Nusrat Saher Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F).

“We have approached every single opposition party and [their] members in the assembly are onboard against this law. Initially, we [PML-F] and the MQM-Pakistan are jointly filing a petition in the Sindh High Court tomorrow [Friday] morning against this law. This law is not meant to strengthen institutions but to cover [up] the corruption of leaders and officials. So we are very much hopeful for justice from the court of law.”

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2017

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