NAB Ordinance meant to protect PM Imran’s friends, cronies

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Saturday charged that the NAB Amendment Ordinance was promulgated for the ‘friends and cronies’ of Prime Minister Imran Khan and asked the government to tell the names of those friends of the prime minister who were given the 'NRO Plus' and immunity through this ordinance.

Addressing a press conference here along with the PPP Media Coordinator Nazir Dhoki, Ijaz Dhamra and Senator Rubina Khalid, the PPPP Secretary Information Dr Nafisa Shah said the government was exempting the ‘friends and cronies’ of Prime Minister Imran Khan through this ordinance and the opposition would lodge a strong protest against it in Parliament. “If it was necessary to promulgate this ordinance, why the government brought it through the backdoor, as it was a scam bigger than Panama and the government should tell the names of those friends who were given immunity through this ordinance,” she said.

Nafisa said the PTI government was trying to hide its incapability by using these anti-people tactics and keep the masses in dark about such advances. Such an ordinance, which is related to a change in the NAB laws, should be discussed and agreed upon by all parties in Parliament, she said. She said the supposed 'accountability' was not inclusive at all, and that only politicians were being targeted, while businessmen were being provided with relief due to their connections with the PTI government. She said the accountability of judges and military was already out of scope of the NAB. “The effort to bring a change in the NAB laws is a worse scandal than that of the PanamaLeaks,” she said.

Dr Nafisa Shah said the ‘selected prime minister’ promulgated this ordinance through the backdoor to benefit and give immunity to the accused in the Peshawar BRT and Malam Jabba from investigations and they will take up this issue in Parliament. She said the prime minister visits Karachi in order to weaken the provincial government and to make amends with his allies. She further said the current government was taking historical U-turns that will be protested in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Rahber Committee of the opposition parties categorically rejected the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)) Ordinance 2019 accusing that the ordinance was promulgated to save the prime minister and his friends.

Addressing a press conference after the Rahber Committee's meeting, Muhammad Akram Khan Durrani, the convener of the committee, termed the promulgation of the NAB Ordinance an insult to Parliament. He observed that the Senate Standing Committee had passed the NAB bill unanimously but the Senate session had not been summoned for over three months to prevent the Upper House from taking up the legislation. "Instead, the NAB Ordinance, 2019 has been promulgated and the prime minister is telling good news to his friends that now their corruption will not be questioned," he regretted.

Referring to the arrest of Ahsan Iqbal and a notice served on Bilawal Bhutto, Akram Durrani said there was certainly NAB-Niazi alliance. "Every person who speaks against the government's corruption is arrested by the NAB or issued notice," he said.

Talking about the Special Court verdict against Pervez Musharraf, he said the judiciary was independent and if anybody had any grievance, they should file an appeal against it. Durrani also condemned the government efforts to seek stay against FIA inquiry against Peshawar BRT.

In a related development, the promulgation of NAB Amendment Ordinance 2019 was challenged in the Supreme Court on Saturday.

Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi filed the petition under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution making the federation of Pakistan, Ministry of law and justice, NAB chairman, secretary interior, secretary foreign affairs and secretary Ministry of Defence as respondents. The petitioner prayed to the apex court to suspend the promulgation of the ordinance till the final decision on the petition. He contended that the ordinance was against Islam, the Constitution and law and promulgated on mala fide intentions.

He further submitted that the ordinance was also against Article 25 of the Constitution, which said all the citizens were equal before the law and entitled to equal protection of law and there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex. "The NAB Amendment Ordinance 2019 is an effort to protect the corruption of politicians and government officials," the petitioner submitted. The ordinance said the NAB had assumed a parallel jurisdiction and was inquiring into matters pertaining to taxation, imposition of levies etc. and was therefore interfering in the domain of taxation regulatory bodies. It was felt necessary to define the operational domain of NAB, says the ordinance. Moreover, the amended NAB Ordinance provides protection to public office holders or government.

Our correspondent from Lahore adds: Meanwhile, a lawyer challenged the promulgation of NAB Amendment Ordinance 2019 in the Lahore High Court.

“The watchdog authority has been chained by joining hands with parliamentarians, civil administration and the business community,” said Advocate Ishtiaq A Chaudhry in a ‘public interest’ petition. He argued that Article 25(1) of the Constitution postulated that all citizens were equal before law and they were entitled to equal protection of law.

He said the special facilitation given to suspects of NAB, whereby powers to arrest and investigate had been interfered and a new plea-bargain before investigation had been introduced, was highly discriminatory. The lawyer pleaded that Article 5 of the Constitution spoke for loyalty to the state and the recent amendments introduced to the NAO were likely to make public office-holders corrupt and disloyal to the state. He argued that the restriction imposed on issuance of public statements by the NAB on inquiries was in direct conflict with the fundamental right to know, enshrined in Article 19-A of the Constitution.

He said powers of the NAB chairman had also been curtailed to protect bureaucrats as prior approval from a six-member scrutiny committee will be required to hold any inquiry, investigation or arrest a government servant. The petitioner also questioned eliminating the role of the NAB chairman in appointment of the bureau’s prosecutor general and reducing maximum limit of physical remand from 90 days to 14 days under the impugned amendments.

Advocate Chaudhry contended that limiting powers of NAB to probe corruption cases involving less than Rs500 million was also tantamount to protecting the corrupt practices. He pointed out that the amendments also omitted Section 14 of the Ordinance, which was a hallmark of whole accountability law and required an accused to prove his assets beyond means and all corrupt practices. The lawyer asked the court to declare the amendments introduced by insertion of Section 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 through NAB (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 ultra vires to the Constitution.