Parliamentary oversight of accountability likely

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary oversight is likely to be tightened in the accountability process under the fresh amendments in the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, being broadly contemplated in senior official legal circles.

There is also a proposal to completely scrap the NAO, a relic of the martial law government, and replace it with a new law after national consensus, a cabinet member involved in the deliberations told The News.

He made it clear that these discussions were going on even before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reprimanded the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday and asked it to change its course because it was always felt that the present law was flawed and imperfect.

According to the source, it has also been suggested that a replica of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) accountability law should be introduced at the federal level as well. This, he said, will silence the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) whose provincial government recently introduced drastic changes in the law that impelled the chairman of the commission to walk out of his office.

It is further proposed that a renowned, non-controversial and reputed figure should be made head of a commission or board comprising the NAB chairman and other senior officials to go through the complaints to recommend inquiry or investigation in them. On its own, the NAB will be disallowed to start probe.

Creation of a separate investigation cell independent of NAB has been discussed so that the anti-corruption doesn’t do every job on its will. The source said that it has also been underlined to review all appointments especially of the retired officers in the NAB as has been provided in the amendments made in the KP accountability law.

It has been suggested that the prosecution and investigation wings should be separated and be headed by different appointees. At the same time, the discretionary powers of the NAB chief are being clipped and will be exercised by the new members to be inducted in the organization on the pattern of the KP law and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The source said there would be no problem in evolving a consensus among the parliamentary forces on the amendments in the NAO or the new law altogether because almost all of major players hold similar views and have also expressed them publicly.

Just a few days after the appointment of the present NAB chief Qamar Zaman in October 2013, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had challenged his nomination in the Supreme Court, making several claims. However, his plea was dismissed in April 2014 by a three-member bench chaired by the then chief justice. When Qamar Zaman was picked up, the PTI chief had publicly protested as per his standard disposition. The source said that different

factors caused the prime minister to comment on particular activities of the NAB. “This was meant to give a message to the bureaucrats and businessmen that he is here to look after them against any excessive actions by the agency.”

According to the source, Nawaz Sharif frequently received complaints from senior bureaucrats, industrialists and businessmen that they are facing hardships at the hands of the NAB, which is shattering their confidence to work. This was having a damning psychological impact on them, he said adding that even personal dealings, which did not involve state money, were being looked into by the NAB.

Hiccups apart, the new amendments in the NAO or its replacement with a new law are likely to attract parliamentary consensus as hardly any political party is happy with the present accountability mode. They also want the parliamentary oversight as is the case in democracies around the world.

Although the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PTI have been vehemently dismissing the present accountability process and demanding a genuine mechanism, they are now displaying a hypocritical approach. One of them has moved resolutions in the Punjab and Sindh assemblies against the prime minister’s recent assertions regarding the NAB while the other is interpreting his remarks in a different way. In any case, the PPP loves to slash the powers of the NAB and has declared so repeatedly.

During the tenure of the PPP government, a bipartisan committee including the then opposition, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), held countless marathon meetings, deliberating upon amendments in the NAO or introducing a new place in its place. They failed to reach a consensus. It always appeared that no side seriously wanted to deal with the assignment.

They had hammered out agreement on a number of clauses, but divergence of opinion persisted on several others. However, the very fact that they sat together for over a year, discussing the issue, made it abundantly clear that they wish to change the law drastically.

The source said the government plans no unilateral action and will not force the amendments upon others but will put them before the parliamentary parties to get their inputs with the objective of evolving a consensus.