Amendments to NAB law proposed: Azam

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar on Friday said the government had proposed amendments to sections IV and V of the NAB law with regard to references returned by the accountability courts.

An ordinance would be issued by the parliament, he said, adding that the accountability courts had been given powers to transfer the references to relevant forums if these did not fall in their jurisdictions.

Addressing a press conference here, he said there had been rumours about the future of references returned by the accountability courts recently, adding that indeed these references were not quashed. Instead, only their forums had been changed. He said the chairman NAB would be authorized to send inquiries to relevant institutions. However, investigations into various matters could be closed only if the court would be satisfied.

The deputy chairman NAB would use all the powers of the chairman in his absence. He said that previously, the NAB had been accused of political engineering and the apex court had observed the same in the Saad Rafiq case.

The PMLN leadership was acquitted of NAB references by courts under the previous law, he

said, adding that the PTI government had used the NAB for political purposes. Imran Khan introduced three ordinances during his tenure.

To a question, the minister said that under Article 19 of the Constitution, the Toshakhana

record from 2000 onwards would be made public

soon. He said that compiling the Toshakhana record since 1947 was a time consuming exercise. He said there was a need that every institution has a self-accountability system.