Govt, opposition willing to amend Ehtesab law

ISLAMABAD: The government and united opposition in parliament have in principle agreed to form a joint Parliamentary Commission to revisit accountability (Ehresab) laws and role of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), including scope of its actions.

It is likely that both sides of the divide of parliament will develop a consensus for establishing a commission before the next sitting of the National Assembly. The National Assembly will start its next session from 29th of this month. It will be the first serious avenue where the government and opposition have developed an understanding and shown broad agreement to work out a new framework for the accountability through reformation that will be more transparent, fair and bringing other spheres of life under the accountability process.

Sources told The News here on Wednesday that a federal minister, who was present in the National Assembly during the requisitioned sitting of the National Assembly, had discussed with former federal minister and stalwart of the PML-N Rana Tanveer Hussain, Khawaja Muhammad Asif and some other leaders of the opposition for setting up a commission or special committee to look into the subject.

Earlier, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Wednesday said that the government would extend all cooperation if opposition parties should come up with concrete proposals to amend the accountability laws to ensure transparency in the process.

He said that their history was replete with victimisation and levelling of such allegations against government. He asked why the opposition was the bane of accountability. He said that the whole NAB set-up was established by Nawaz Sharif and Khursheed Shah as PTI had not even appointed a peon in the Bureau.

Fawad Chaudhry said the government did not oppose the participation of Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif in the National Assembly session and that he had been brought to Islamabad from Lahore on production orders by the National Assembly speaker.

He asserted that those who had appointed Saifur Rehman as NAB chairman should not talk about political victimisation. To a question, the minister said that democracy was not under any threat due to accountability of what he called looters of the national wealth.

He said that on the pattern of a parliamentary commission on alleged rigging in 2018 general election, there should be a commission also on the state of the national economy and those who had brought Pakistan to this position during the last 10 years, should be held accountable.

“There should be no leniency and the noose must not be softened with regard to the process of accountability,” he made it clear. During a chat with journalists outside the Parliament House, the minister said the government was on very sound footing and alleged they (opposition) wanted to conspire against the government but they had no ground to do so. “They lack credibility,” he charged.

The minister said in categorical terms that the across the board accountability process would continue without any discrimination and that the government had nothing to do with it. He emphasised that the PTI government did not believe in political victimisation but would bring to justice all those who plundered the national exchequer. He said no matter how much hue and cry would be raised, it would in no way, not impede the ongoing accountability process.

Replying to another question about providing relief to common man, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the provincial governments to fix the prices of commodities keeping in view the public interest.

The minister also announced that health cards would soon be issued to provide medical facilities to the deserving people and prime minister's five million housing project would soon be launched to provide housing facilities to the low income segment of the society in the country.

He claimed that no past government had ever thought of building houses for the homeless people of Pakistan. The minister maintained that the government was saving national exchequer. He regretted that Rs34 billion was being added to the circular debt every month vis-à-vis electricity.