ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee on accountability laws on Wednesday once again failed to develop consensus on formation of the National Accountability Commission as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) refused to change their stance, while the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) skipped the committee’s meeting.
The parliamentary committee meeting was chaired by Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid. The JI and PTI wanted the NAB to continue, as they feared that the government was pushing for the new legislation only to protect Nawaz Sharif.
According to reports, PTI leader Shireen Mazari proposed that the families of the public office holders should also be brought within the purview of the accountability laws.
“However, the government seems set on this proposal,” she alleged, insinuating that the Sharif family’s legal woes were influencing the government’s lawmaking.
The committee also failed to reach a consensus on the procedure of filing a corruption reference against an accused.
“We want someone other than the NAB chairman to make a decision on the filing of a reference against an accused,” Law Minister Zahid Hamid said.
Laying out the way forward, the law minister said the decision to keep NAB in its current form or replace it with the National Accountability Commission would be made after a vote. “I hope that a decision will be made regarding the delimitation of constituencies in the [next] meeting of parliamentary leaders,” he later said.
The parliamentary committee has been summoned for another meeting on Friday.
Published in Daily Times, November 16th 2017.
