ISLAMABAD, June 10 The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved on Wednesday the draft of a bill, The Holder of Public Office (Accountability) Act 2009, to bring politicians, legislators and bureaucrats to the accountability net. It excludes judiciary and defence services.

According to sources, the government plans to include the proposed law in the Finance Bill.

They said the committee had made a number of amendments to the draft mostly proposed by Anusha Rahman Khan and Zahid Hamid of the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Riaz Fatyana of the PML-Q member told Dawn that the draft would amend almost half of the NAB ordinance to pave way for setting up an accountability commission to replace the National Accountability Bureau.

He said that under the proposed amendments, a retired judge of the Supreme Court would head the accountability commission and a high court judge would be its deputy chairman, instead of military officers and bureaucrats.

The prime minister will appoint the chairman of the commission in consultation with the leader of the opposition.

The draft bill provides a maximum sentence of seven years for a person found involved in corruption and he will be ineligible for holding any public office and contesting elections for five years, instead of 10 years provided in present law.

A parliamentary committee of three members each from the Senate and the National Assembly (treasury and opposition) will be set up to monitor the performance of the commission.

The committee meeting was presided over by Begum Nasim Chaudhry and was attended by Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Zahid Hamid, Anusha Rahman Khan, Riaz Fatyana, Ms Shakeela Khanum Rashid and S.A. Iqbal Qadri.