NA’s last session may not be the least

Heavy business is on agenda as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition government plans to ignore the reservations of the major opposition party – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – over the controversial National Accountability Bill 2012, which is being dubbed by legal experts as discriminatory and in violation of the fundamental rights, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
Well-placed sources said the government plans to summon the 48th session of the National Assembly on December 10, and there is a strong likelihood that it may prove to be the last session of the lower house. “The government plans to get around 16 bills passed during the next session, including the controversial National Accountability Bill and 15 other bills which have already been passed by various standing committees,” sources said.
They further said that a summary had already been moved to President Asif Ali Zardari to summon the session of the incumbent assembly which would stand dissolved on the midnight of March 17 after completing its predetermined five-year term. This would be the second legislature in the country’s history to complete its stipulated term. “The government is all set to table the controversial National Accountability Bill 2012, which has already been passed by the NA’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice despite the fact that the PML-N members opposed the bill which is being termed as a new form of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) by some experts,” said a source in the PPP.
The source said that some other important bills such as the Fair Trial Bill 2012, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Bill 2012, Election Reforms Bill 2102, and some other bills might also be included in the list as there was a strong possibility that this might be the last session of the National Assembly. Despite successive parleys between the PPP and the PML-N, both the parties have failed to evolve consensus over the Accountability Commission Bill. On November 14, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice had met to discuss the bill but failed to evolve consensus. Later, in an in-camera session, the government got it approved on the following day after not being able to woo the PML-N members.
Law Minister Farooq H Naek said the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice had completed review of the revised draft of the National Accountability Commission Bill, which would be tabled in the National Assembly in the coming week for approval. In the proposed bill, the imprisonment on corruption charges has been reduced to seven years from 14 years. However, the PML-N has reservations over the bill in its entirety. PML-N member Zahid Hamid says that the proposed commission was nothing more than a toothless authority as it fails to empower the commission. The commission would not have the authority to freeze the property of the accused living out of the country, he added. He also expressed his party’s concerns over the fact that the commission would not have the authority to investigate cases older than 10 years. According to the new bill, the chairman of the commission could either be a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired grade-22 officer of the federal government. In the previous bill, the opposition had insisted the chairman be a retired Supreme Court judge.