ISLAMABAD: The treasury and opposition benches in the National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday agreed to constitute a parliamentary committee comprising members from both sides of the aisle for amendments in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.
The parliamentary committee would comprise parliamentarians from the two houses of parliament, hailing from the opposition and treasury benches.
The consensus among opposition and treasury benches on the constitution of a parliamentary committee was reached when the members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) sought to move two separate bills aimed at the prevention of corruption.
The MQM introduced the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2016 while the JI introduced the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2016.
As the MQM member Shaikh Salahuddin on behalf of his other party members wanted to introduce the National Accountability Bureau (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Law Minister Zahid Hamid did not want to oppose the proposed legislation but said there should be a consensus in parliament on such acts.
Zahid Hamid said across-the-board accountability is part of the manifesto of the PML-N and they wanted to make NAB an independent commission to take decisions on the basis of merit. He suggested a parliamentary committee could be constituted to look into the bills aiming at amendments in the NAB Ordinance 1999.
The members from different parties also supported constitution of a parliamentary committee, saying that it should include members from both the National Assembly and the Senate.The members who spoke on the issue included Dr. Arif Alvi (PTI), Shah G Gul Afridi (Fata), Naveed Qamar (PPP) and Sher Akbar Khan (JI).
They emphasised that the parliamentary committee should be constituted at the earliest and it should be given a time-frame to complete its task, saying that there was a need to strengthen NAB and free it from any political interference.
They said that all the parties wanted across-the-board accountability and that those involved in corrupt practices should be brought to book.Later, Shaikh Salahuddin of MQM introduced “The National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2016”. The speaker said the bill would be referred for consideration to the Parliamentary Committee after its constitution.
Meanwhile, a bill seeking enhancement of women judges in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was referred to the concerned committee for further deliberations by the National Assembly on Tuesday.
Presenting an IHC Amendment Bill 2016 in parliament, MNA Saman Sultana Jafri of MQM said that women are not directly inducted in the Supreme Court while they are firstly appointed in high courts, then they are further promoted.
The Federal Law Minister, Zahid Hamid, informed the parliamentarians that a bill regarding the enhancement of women’s representation in the SC had already been rejected by the standing committee.
The National Assembly speaker referred the bill to the concerned committee. Meanwhile, the Speaker National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, while reacting to a calling attention notice regarding unfair distribution of gunny sacks to growers, said the ministry currently seemed helpless, adding it should play a more effective role in order to protect the interest of poor growers.
He also sought a report from the ministry and movers of the calling attention notice in 15 days, adding following the report the issue would be referred to the FIA or NAB.He also asked political parties, including PPP, JUI-F and PTI, to provide the names of their representatives to extend their services for sorting out the concerned issues.
Parliamentary Secretary for Food and Agriculture Rajab Ali Baloch said that Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Limited (Passco) had been constituted for fair distribution of gunny-sacks among growers.
He said so far the sacks had been distributed among more than 72,000 growers at 215 centers in a transparent manner across the country.He said if anyone was found in malpractices with regard to distribution of gunny-sacks, he would be punished, adding growers were given sacks as per set standard.
He said that according to Passco, he said farmers could not present any evidence or proof before the Federal Ombudsmen and courts of law about unfair distribution of sacks.