Govt refuses to end autonomy of anti-corruption watchdog

In a bid to uphold the sovereignty of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the federal government Monday rejected a summary seeking an end to the autonomy of the anti-graft watchdog and its chairman.

In its summary, NAB pleaded with the government to declare the anti-graft watchdog as the Civil Service Occupational Group, however, the Ministry of Law rejected the summary saying that NAB and its chairman are more autonomous than the civil service group.

In its letter, the law ministry wrote that by approving the summary, the anti-graft watchdog will no longer be an autonomous institution.

NAB Bill 2022

In August, the National Assembly passed the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, which sought to exclude private transactions from the scope of NAB.

Under the amended bill, the pecuniary jurisdiction of NAB had been fixed to only take action against mega scandals. Furthermore, it had been proposed that supplementary references can only be filed with the permission of the court to expedite the proceedings of the court within one year.

As per the bill, the investigation officers shall not harass any person during the investigation or inquiry and they will confine their questions relevant to the investigation or inquiry or for extracting evidence.