ISLAMABAD; The Pakistan Tehreek- e -Insaf (PTI) government on Wednesday unveiled a number of conspicous changes in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance.
Law minister, Farogh Nasim and Information minister , Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, gave details of the changes made in NAB ordinance.
The amended ordinance to be called NAB ordinance 2021.
The amended ordinance bars NAB to question any forum of the governance at any stage . It will not be authorised to question any decision of Council of Common Interests (CCI), committees, sub committees and other forums of collective decisions. The new amedments also refrain NAB from taking any action against the banks including State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), private companies and individuals. These amendments have been introduced to put to an end to harassment created in the country by NAB that shuned away investment from Pakistan.
However, the government also did some man -specific amendments in NAB ordinance. One of such amendments is relating to facilitation to incumbent chairman . The new ordinance says the incumbent chairman will continue to serve till appointment of the new chairman. This is an open- ended term. Its basically included in the amended NAB ordinance to benefit incumbent chairman. Similiarly, the government has introduced an extremely conspicious amendment in NAB ordinance, which states the incumbent chairman can be re-appointed for another term of 4-year on completion of the first term. This amendment has been introduced by the PTI government with bad intention to benefit the incumbent chairnan NAB. These conspicious amendments will make the opposition task easier to challenge the amended NAB ordinance in the court.
As per new amended ordinance, the president will consult with the leader of House (Parliament) and leader of the opposition for creating consensus on the issue. On failure at this stage, the matter will go to a 12- member parliamentary committee to be constituted by the leader of the House. The new ordinance has repealed the role of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP). In orginal NAB ordinance, the SCP was the last and final forum to appoint NAB chairman. This forum does not exit in the amended NAB ordinance 2021.
