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Gillani's plan to scrap NAB runs into rough weather
Islamabad (PTI): A move by Pakistan's new government to disband a controversial anti-graft agency set up by President Pervez Musharraf has run into rough weather, with Law Minister Farooq Naek saying that any legislation in this regard will need the assent of the military ruler.
Soon after securing a vote of confidence in parliament last month, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had said that he would abolish the National Accountability Bureau, which was responsible for sending him and several political leaders behind bars during the pro-Musharraf PML(Q) regime.
However, the government's legal experts pointed out that the NAB ordinance was part of the constitution's six schedule, which could not be changed without the President's assent.
"The law ministry is considering different ways to repeal or amend the NAB ordinance in line with Prime Minister Gillani's directive," Naek said while answering a calling attention notice in the National Assembly yesterday regarding the alleged misuse of the NAB to harass government employees for political reasons.
"The law ministry is in the process of framing a proper law as the government believes in across-the-board accountability and not a selective one," he said.
Gillani had said NAB would be abolished to end "political victimisation" and anti-graft cases would be brought under the purview of civil courts.
Naek acknowledged that the NAB was used as a political tool by the previous government to victimise politicians and government employees selectively.
He said slain Pakistan People's Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto too had been victimised by the NAB. "PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani have spent eight and five years in jail respectively under the ordinance," he said.
Islamabad (PTI): A move by Pakistan's new government to disband a controversial anti-graft agency set up by President Pervez Musharraf has run into rough weather, with Law Minister Farooq Naek saying that any legislation in this regard will need the assent of the military ruler.
Soon after securing a vote of confidence in parliament last month, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani had said that he would abolish the National Accountability Bureau, which was responsible for sending him and several political leaders behind bars during the pro-Musharraf PML(Q) regime.
However, the government's legal experts pointed out that the NAB ordinance was part of the constitution's six schedule, which could not be changed without the President's assent.
"The law ministry is considering different ways to repeal or amend the NAB ordinance in line with Prime Minister Gillani's directive," Naek said while answering a calling attention notice in the National Assembly yesterday regarding the alleged misuse of the NAB to harass government employees for political reasons.
"The law ministry is in the process of framing a proper law as the government believes in across-the-board accountability and not a selective one," he said.
Gillani had said NAB would be abolished to end "political victimisation" and anti-graft cases would be brought under the purview of civil courts.
Naek acknowledged that the NAB was used as a political tool by the previous government to victimise politicians and government employees selectively.
He said slain Pakistan People's Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto too had been victimised by the NAB. "PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani have spent eight and five years in jail respectively under the ordinance," he said.
