Khattak, Qureshi to lead talks with opposition on NAB law

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday constituted a 10-member committee to discuss the amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws and electoral reforms with the opposition parties. 

The task of holding talks with the opposition has been given to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Pervez Khattak and Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The members of the panel include Khattak, Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry, Sheikh Rashid, Shafqat Mahmood, Amir Kayani, Saifullah Niazi, Shibli Faraz and others.

The body will negotiate with the opposition on the electoral reforms and amendments to the NAB laws.

The anti-graft watchdog had been actively pursuing cases against the opposition leaders since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came to power in July 2018.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, even before taking oath of the office, had raised the slogan of a corruption-free Pakistan and vowed to deal with the culprits with an iron fist.

The opposition has since been seeking applicability of the accountability law to start from 1999, reduction in NAB chairman’s tenure, removal of money laundering from the list of cognisable offences, allowing the “convicted” persons to remain members of parliament till disposal of appeals and limiting the duration of taking cognisance by NAB of any wrongdoing to five years.

The opposition further proposed that allegations of corruption of less than Rs1 billion should not come under the NAB’s scope.

On the issue of electoral reforms, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Thursday wrote letters to all the parliamentary leaders of the lower and upper house.

Qaiser, in his letter, stressed on the importance of constitutional and electoral reforms saying these were the need of the hour.

Giving the details, he noted that the leaders of all parliamentary parties would be included in the parliamentary committee. The notification for the electoral reforms body would be issued after the nomination of parliamentary leaders in the Senate.

The NA speaker pointed out that horse-trading was common in the past and emphasized that it needed to be stopped.

He called for strengthening the parliamentary democracy by putting an end to the corrupt practices.

The premier on Wednesday had directed the NA speaker to constitute an inter-party parliamentary committee.

In a letter to Qaiser, PM Imran said this month's Senate elections had once again highlighted "the scourge of vote purchasing in the prevailing non-transparent manner of conducting elections".

The prime minister maintained that the Election Commission of Pakistan had failed to hold the recent Senate elections in a fair and transparent manner.

He requested the speaker to form a parliamentary committee to review the election reforms bill tabled by the PTI-led government in October 2020.

The prime minister noted that his party had introduced a bill in the National Assembly and also approached the Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court ordered making the elections transparent. Unfortunately, the Election Commission has failed to fulfill its responsibility.”

After government candidate Abdul Hafeez Shaikh failed to secure a general seat from Islamabad, PM Imran in his address to the nation had sharply criticised the performance of the ECP.

Meanwhile, PML-N rejected the parliamentary committee saying the NA speaker should first prove his “impartiality” and that electoral reforms cannot be introduced through “point scoring”.