The federal government on Monday tabled the Accountability Bill 2012 in the National Assembly, as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) put up a strong opposition to the draft.
Presenting the Accountability Bill in the National Assembly, Minister for Law and Justice Farooq H Naik said Pervez Musharraf’s accountability laws were still working in the country and the government wanted a new accountability bill.
Naek urged the passage of the bill from the Accountability Bill Committee by October 11.
The National Accountability Commission Act, 2010, has been a bone of contention between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PML-N since its presentation in the National Assembly on April 15, 2009, under the title “the Holder of Public Office (Accountability) Act, 2009”. Its title was changed afterwards.
After deliberating for a year, the NA committee on law and justice, headed by PPP’s Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, passed the draft of the bill in April 2010 despite the opposition’s protest. The PML-N members in the committee submitted notes of dissent. On September 6, PPP’s chief whip and Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah and Law Minister Farooq Naik handed over its draft to PML-N’s Ishaq Dar and Khwaja Asif.
The PPP leaders expressed the desire to pass the law with a unanimous vote, but neither side has spoken about the bill since.
The accountability bill has seen an exhausted discussion. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice reportedly held 30 meetings that saw several boycotts, walkouts and altercations between the opposition and treasury benches.
The PML-N is not happy with some clauses of the bill passed by the committee. It wants the head of the proposed National Accountability Commission (NAC) to be a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, but the government favours filling the position either by a sitting or a retired judge or any person qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court. The PML-N also opposed immunity for a public office holder if an individual was found guilty of committing wrongdoing in “good faith”. It has also suggested that the commission be allowed to investigate cases dating back to 1947, but the bill proposes that the NAC will not carry out investigations into any crime committed before 1985.
The PML-N has opposed the bill because the party’s suggestions in the bill were not given proper heed. The bill also states that cases older than 10 years would not be reopened, adding that no one would have immunity in any case, be it the president, prime minister, governor, speaker, auditor general, attorney general or retired officers of the armed forces.
If approved, the bill will result in the formation of a new National Accountability Commission that will repeal the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in favour of the new accountability law.
Govt tables new accountability bill amid PML-N protest
