The cabinet committee on anti-corruption establishment law reforms constituted by Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif met on Friday at ACS Conference Room, Civil Secretariat Lahore in the chairmanship of Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja.
The committee has been tasked with removing anomalies and existing shortcomings from ToRs in the relevant law and rules pertaining to Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab along with suggesting remedial measures and best possible legal provisions to make the Anti-Corruption Establishment more effective to improve the conviction rate of the culprits.
Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja constituted a sub-committee comprising Prosecution Punjab secretary and Anti-Corruption Establishment DG to prepare a detailed briefing on the subject and present it before the next meeting of the cabinet committee within a week. The recommendations will be sent to the Punjab chief minister after thorough scrutiny by the cabinet committee.
The ACS hoped that the new draft law, after approval from the provincial cabinet and Punjab Assembly will help eliminate corruption and bribery including white collar crimes in a manner which will definitely commensurate the international benchmarks of good governance in criminal justice and will also help prevent trespassing of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) into the jurisdiction of ACE Punjab.
All this process can culminate into the establishment of a more powerful ‘Punjab Anti-Corruption Agency’ in the near future, he added.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Services Punjab Farhan Aziz Khawaja, Secretary Prosecution Punjab Syed Ali Murtaza, Director General ACE Brig. (R) Muzaffar Ali Ranjha, Additional Advocate General Punjab Imtiaz Kaifi, Director ACE Naveed Shahzad Mirza, Deputy Secretary Law Abid Raza, Additional Director Law Muhammad Naeem Khan, Deputy Secretary (Establishment) S&GAD Sidrah Yunis and Law Officer ACE Saadia Aziz.
