ISLAMABAD: Representatives of the government and the opposition on Tuesday held talks on a proposal to review accountability laws and “agreed” on the need to overhaul the laws to remove apprehensions about working of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with a view to making accountability process just and transparent.

The meeting, held at the Parliament House chamber of Law Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem, was attended by leaders from the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), besides Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The participants included former National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, former deputy speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi and former Punjab home minister Rana Sanaullah Khan from the PML-N, whereas the PPP was represented by Syed Naveed Qamar.

On ‘govt initiative’ two sides hold second round of talks on the issue

There was no official word on the talks. Sources in the opposition said it was second such meeting between the government and the opposition over the last few days.

The opposition members claimed that the initiative for the talks on the issue had been taken by the PTI government itself.

“Ministers have told us that bureaucrats are not performing their duties due to NAB’s fear and activism and the government is facing difficulties in inviting investments in the country due to recent actions of the bureau against politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen,” an opposition member told Dawn.

In the past, he recalled, then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had also stated on a number of occasions during the previous PML-N government’s tenure that the bureaucrats were not working due to the fear of NAB and, subsequently, development activities had come to a standstill in the country.

The opposition parties, particularly the PML-N and the PPP, have been criticising the bureau for more than one year over its alleged “one-sided accountability”. The opposition parties allege that NAB, created by former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf in 1999 through an ordinance, has always been used as a tool for carrying out political victimisation of opponents.

PML-N president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif — who has been under NAB custody in connection with investigations into the Ashiyana housing scam since Oct 5 and attending the assembly proceedings after issuance of his production order by Speaker Asad Qaiser — had recently alleged on the floor of the house that there was an “unholy alliance” between the PTI and NAB and that the bureau had been active only against the PML-N people.

Responding to the allegations, the government claimed that it had nothing to do with the ongoing arrests by NAB as the bureau had been functioning independently.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had even invited the opposition parties to suggest changes in the NAB laws, if they had any complaint about the bureau which had been functioning under a chairman nominated by the PPP and the PML-N. The minister had assured the opposition members that the government would welcome their positive suggestions and was ready to amend the laws.

Talking to Dawn, PML-N stalwart Ayaz Sadiq said they had only held “initial talks” on the issue so far and there was a general consensus among them that the country should have a strict accountability system and no corrupt person should be spared. He said if things moved ahead, the next stage would be formation of a parliamentary committee for which they (PML-N) had already submitted nominations to the government.

Similarly, PPP’s Naveed Qamar, when contacted, said the talks were currently at “preliminary stage” and more talks were expected, if the government showed seriousness in changing the accountability laws. He said they had told the law minister that a lot of work had already been done during the past 10 years and those drafts could also be considered while reviewing the NAB laws.

After coming to power following the July 25 general elections, Prime Minister Imran Khan had constituted a special task force under the law minister to reform accountability laws.

The task force in its last meeting in September had decided to consult all stakeholders and seek public support for preparing a new law aimed at empowering NAB.

During the meeting, the law minister had stated that the intention behind the formation of the task force was to reform the NAB law in terms of making it more focused and effective “to counter mega corruption with suitable checks and balances to avoid unnecessary harassment”.

Dr Farogh had said all stakeholders must be taken into confidence and public opinion and support needed to be kept in mind while preparing a new accountability law. He had said that through the new accountability law a positive message was expected to be conveyed to the business community.

The government has begun the process of drafting a law despite the fact that a number of laws seeking amendments to the existing NAB Ordinance 2002 had already been discussed by various committees of the Senate and the National Assembly during the last 10 years.

The country’s two major parties — the PPP and the PML-N — had through a famous Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in London in 2006 agreed to abolish NAB and replace it with a new institution — National Accountability Commission (NAC).

The PPP government under then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had moved a bill seeking to establish NAC in 2009, but the bill could not be passed due to failure of the government and opposition PML-N to reach consensus on its draft. Though the two parties had agreed on most of the clauses of the proposed bill, they failed to resolve differences on petty issues.

Similarly, when the PML-N assumed power in 2013, it also made a move to replace NAB with NAC, but again both the parties failed to fulfil their commitment under the CoD.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2018