ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the proposed changes in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law should be discussed and finalised by the cabinet before these are submitted to the presidency for approval.

At a briefing by Law Minister Farooq H. Naek on the proposed amendments to the NAB law at the President’s House here, Mr Zardari said the Pakistan People’s Party was committed to implementation of the Charter of Democracy in order to amend the accountability law, so that it could not be exploited for social and political purposes.

The law minister briefed the president on how the NAB law had been enacted over a decade ago for the so-called accountability of corrupt elements, but was in fact misused for political ends.

He said the amendment to NAB law could only be made with the approval of the president as the NAB Ordinance had been included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution under 17th amendment, which stated that the laws mentioned in it could be amended only with the approval of the president.

The Charter of Democracy singed between the PPP and PML-N states that the politically motivated NAB will be abolished and replaced by an independent accountability commission whose chairman will be appointed jointly by the prime minister and the leader of opposition in the National Assembly with the advice and consensus of a joint parliamentary committee.