NAB ordinance tabled amidst walkout

Adviser to the prime minister, Raza Rabbani, joins protesting opposition members.

ISLAMABAD: In a tactful move, the government on Friday placed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance with some ‘controversial’ amendments before the Senate amid strong opposition just before the House was prorogued sine die.

Adviser to the prime minister, Raza Rabbani, joined the protesting opposition members who staged a walkout for what they called ‘ill intention’ of the government for placing the ordinance before the House in the dying moments of the session.

The government had promised to replace NAB with a new accountability commission but the new law could not be enacted due to differences between the ruling party and the opposition over some of its provisions. The proposed legislation is pending with the law committee of the lower house.

The government has made certain amendments in the existing NAB ordinance apparently giving the law ministry a greater oversight over the accountability bureau by curtailing its powers.

Legislators from PML-N, PML-Q and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) expressed apprehensions on the timing of the legislation and for not making it public before bringing it to parliament.

Law Minister Babar Awan claimed in response that the ordinance had been published in the Gazette of Pakistan for the general public and nothing had been hidden or amended in it. Clarifying various points, he said the amendment in Section 16-A of the ordinance has been proposed and it has been suggested that after establishment of Islamabad High Court an accountability court may also be set up in the Federal Capital.

To the objection of PML-N’s Syed Zafar Ali Shah that the ordinance was promulgated by the president on September 16 and was kept in a dark corner, Awan said his party believes in transparent and open accountability, adding that nothing had been done in secret.

However, Shah questioned that if the ordinance was not based on the ‘ill intentions and a misdeed’, then why was it not made public the day the minister claimed it was officially published. Awan termed the opposition’s protest a point-scoring tactic, and urged Deputy Chairman Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali to expunge un-parliamentary words such as “ill intentions and misdeed”.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2010.