Anti-graft body’s powers to be restricted
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Amendment Bill introduced in the provincial assembly on Friday will restrict the Commission to deal with the cases involving corruption and irregularities of Rs50 million and above while the Anti-Corruption Establishment would continue to probe the cases in which less than Rs50 million is at stake.
If passed into law, the amended Ehtesab Commission Act would also bind the Commission to take 60 days to undertake enquiry after the arrest of an accused. At the same time it may continue investigation against an accused for 90 days after his or her arrest. However, if need be, the time limit may be extended by another 60 and 90 days for enquiry and investigation, respectively, under the amended Ehtesab law.
The bill was presented by provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi when the assembly met on Friday with Deputy Speaker Dr Mehr Taj Roghani in the chair.
The bill has also sought an amendment to the Ehtesab Act, restricting the Commission from intervening into the irregularities in the administrative matters of the government departments and ongoing development schemes.
Under the amended law, the Ehtesab Commission Directorate would be composed of a director general, prosecutor general and directors, All the positions in the directorate would be filled with the recommendations of the director general while its five commissioners would elect the chief commissioner.
Any commissioner could be removed from his position on the line of the removal of the high court judge and a reference would be sent to the governor in this regard after a complaint against the commissioner is proven and found valid.
A scrutiny committee of the commission would examine all the appointments in the directorate. The post of the director general would be filled within 120 days after it falls vacant.However, the chief commissioner may give additional charge of the office of the director general to any of the officials of the commission for an interim period.
The amended law would also bind the commission to return within 30 days the record it collects from any of the department during the course of enquiry or investigation. The record obtained from an accused would be returned to him within 30 days at his request.After the completion of the enquiry and investigation, the case would be filed in the court. After the acquittal of an accused he would be given all his money with respect and dignity.
Earlier, during the Question Hour, the House became a fish market when the opposition members criticised the provincial government for what they called an inequitable distribution of development funds.
There was then a hullaballoo that forced the deputy speaker to leave the house after she found herself helpless to put it in order. The members of both the treasury and opposition benches continued to raise slogans of “shame, shame” and offshore, offshore companies” during the Question Hour.
Opposition members Sardar Hussain Babak of the Awami National Party (ANP) and Nighat Orakzai of the PPP said the government was making a solo flight in the affairs of the province due to which it was facing a budgetary shortfall of Rs70 billion as it could not plead its case with the federal government.
Health Minister Shah Farman, meanwhile, jumped in and alleged that during the ANP rule, posts in the education and other departments were put on sale and the levels of corruption then could be gauged from the fact that only a political assistant of the ANP chief minister committed to pay Rs250 million plea-bargain to the National Accountability Bureau.
The provincial minister’s assertion led to an uproar in the House and at one point of time PPP’s Fakhar Azam and Senior Minister Shahram Tarakai got personal on the matter of recruitment in the Health Department. However, the senior minister later went to the seat of Fakhar Azam and hugged him as a mark of recondciliation. His gesture was appreciated by the lawmakers from both sides.
