The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved 10 sections of the National Accountability Commission Bill 2012, on Wednesday.
A committee meeting was held in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Riaz Fatiyana. During the meeting, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member objected that only four out of 20 members were present.
Law Minister Farooq H Naek, Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah and Defence Minister Naveed Qamar were present during the meeting.
The committee reviewed the first ten sections out of the total 38 of the National Accountability Bill Commission 2012, and approved those 10 sections through voting. The PML-N proposed that the bill should not exclude the corruption committed in the past. However, the proposal was rejected through voting due to majority of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) members in the committee. They further decided that the Bill be implemented from October 1, 2002.
According to the Bill, the chairman of the Accountability Commission would be elected by the committee after considering the proposed names – two each by the prime minister and the opposition leader –within 14 days. If the committee is not able to elect the chairman of the commission within 14 days, the Bill says that the prime minister would send the name again, and it would be considered final. After the meeting, PML-N member Zahid Hamid told reporters that the government had bulldozed the proceedings of the committee and only approved the sections of their choice. He said that corruption in the past had been given cover through the new bill.
Hamid said that the only PML-N proposal accepted by the committee was the appointment of deputy chairman and prosecutor of the commission through the committee. He said the PML-N would change the Accountability Commission totally after coming into power, so that no one was exempted from accountability.
He held all coalition partners of the government equally responsible in approving the controversial bill, adding that all those parties were together in giving cover to corruption done in the past. PPP leader Khursheed Shah said the accountability of the PPP and the PML-N had been done several times in the past and the two parties should now move on by setting aside politics of rivalry. He said the chairman of the commission would be a retired judge of the apex court and the word “bureaucrat” had been taken out from the bill. The committee will meet again today to review other sections of the bill, and PML-N members are likely to participate in the meeting despite having reservations.
