close
Thursday March 28, 2024

PPP seeks time to examine draft for new Ehtesab law

By our correspondents
November 18, 2017
ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on New Accountability (Ehtesab) Laws was adjourned till Monday without holding any proceedings on Friday as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) sought time for examining proposals for the new accountability law floated in the last meeting of the committee.
The PPP’s newly inducted member Senator Farooq H Naek, who replaced Senator Farhatullah Babar in the committee, sought time to examine the government draft on formation of National Accountability Commission in place of the existing National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The meeting was chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar in place of Law Minister Zahid Hamid who asked to chair the meeting in his place on Friday due to his other engagements. The members of the PPP did not attend the previous meeting of the committee that was held on Tuesday.
Though the PPP had almost agreed on the formation of new accountability commission replacing the existing NAB, yet it wanted the scope of the new accountability laws restricted only to the federal government and its departments, while the provinces should have their own accountability commission.
However, the PML-N and other parties in the committee did not agree to the proposal arguing that new accountability laws are not limited only to the federal government, but its scope will be widened to whole Pakistan. Sources said that in the next meeting, which is scheduled to be held on coming Monday, the Parliamentary Committee on New Accountability Laws would discuss this issue.
So far the committee has failed to make any headway on the new accountability laws as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have refused to accept the government’s bill. The committee has not reached a consensus on the procedure of filing a corruption reference against an accused.