TAXILA: Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid on Sunday said the desired reforms would be brought in the accountability (ehtesab) mechanism adding that nails have to be trimmed when they grow too long.
However, the minister made it clear that the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) won’t be cut down. He was talking to reporters here at Zildar House. The special orange-cum-lunch party was organised by Syed Zaheerul Hassan Zildar in honour of the diplomatic corps here.
More than 150 diplomats, mainly from Western countries and the Gulf region, along with their families, participated in the function. The guests were also shown the nearby ruins of the Buddhist civilisation.
The minister said the government will protect all those officers against unjust the accountability process who were making decisions on ‘merit’. He said the Council of Common Interests (CCI) would decide on the holding of a population census in March once the provinces evolved a consensus by removing their reservations.
The minister said Imran Khan had earlier said the appointment of the NAB chairman was the result of a deal but nowadays he was sympathizing with him. Asked about the holding of a population census at a time when the Army was not fully ready to meet the full deployment requirements, Pervaiz said the census was due next month for which the government had allocated funds.
He said the Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had convened an APC and the upcoming CCI meeting would decide about it, provided all provinces evolve a consensus by removing their concerns.
Regarding the prime minister’s criticism of NAB, he said the government had completed the work of 400 days in 365 days without wasting time. “We would have done five years work in just two-and-a-half years had the Imran Khan-led PTI not wasted one-and-a-half years of our precious time through sit-ins,” he added.
He said the prime minister had talked about those institutions which were hindering the country’s progress. He said the premier had mentioned the NAB as well as regulatory bodies which were taking much time for approving projects.
When asked to cite examples where a regulatory body created hindrances, he said an inquiry was started before taking a decision on importing LNG from Qatar despite the fact that in our neighbouring country the government was criticised after getting expensive gas keeping in view the gas price secured by Pakistan.
“The world is appreciating Pakistan for getting cheap LNG as the government had linked it with the Brent Crude price on the international market,” he added.
“Some officers got scared and they preferred not to take decisions if inquiries are started in such cases,” the minister said and added that it was the responsibility of the government to protect all those officers and their institutions who were taking decisions in the interest of the country.
“We will introduce the much-needed reforms to overhaul the accountability mechanism,” he said, adding that decisions were made behind closed doors during dictatorial regimes but in a democratic dispensation decisions were made through debate and by evolving a consensus among all stakeholders.
About the Pathankot incident, the minister said parliament had been taken into confidence at the start of the incident and now different forums in the form of question hour, call attention notices, adjournment motions and standing committees were available with parliamentarians to raise relevant questions on this front and the government would be bound to reply to their queries.
About a clash between PPP and PML-N workers in AJK, the minister said the post-mortem report had proved that the person was not killed by a bullet but died because of suffocation.