ISLAMABAD – The government has accepted almost all proposals from PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, but the new accountability bill still remains a stumbling block because the PPP is unwilling to start the process retrospectively from 1947, as the government considers the demand impracticable.
The setting up of a new accountability commission is part of the PML-N’s interim agenda accepted on Sunday by the prime minister and per commitment, the PPP government will have to get the new accountability bill passed by parliament within 45 days.
The PPP has accepted a number of PML-N’s recommendations for the proposed accountability commission, including the deletion of clause which entailed no action against a public office-holder after the passage of three years of his or her relinquishing the office, and the duration of the maximum imprisonment term, increased from seven years to 14 years on PML-N’s insistence.
National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice Chairwoman Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry and other PPP members of the committee have also surrendered before the PML-N’s demand that the proposed accountability commission should not be placed under the Ministry of Law, and it has now been placed in the draft bill under the Cabinet Division.
Pakistan Today has learnt that the PPP was not ready to accept the PML-N’s demand that the new accountability bill should cover the entire period from 1947.
“The PPP leaders and members of the parliamentary committee on law and justice argue that it is not feasible and would entangle the new accountability commission in to a useless exercise,” a PPP MNA said.
Chaudhry said the PPP was against accountability from 1947. “With a number of relevant people having passed away and the record destroyed, how we can start accountability from 1947,” she said.
She said the PPP was proposing that the accountability should start from 1985 or another date which could make the accountability process feasible for the new accountability commission. “Starting accountability from 1947 will be tantamount to ridiculing accountability itself,” she said, adding that the matter would be taken up in the next meeting of the NA standing body scheduled for January 17.
Nasim said the draft of the new accountability bill was almost final. “The PML-N raises new objections in every meeting and hinders its finalisation,” she said.
