Opposition wanted NRO for Nawaz, Zardari, others: Shibli

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz Monday said the opposition had proposed amendments to 34 of the 38 provisions of the NAB Act, including an amendment to eliminate money laundering as a crime.

Speaking at a press conference here, he claimed that through amendments to the law, the opposition wanted to legitimise its corruption from 1985 to 1999, as it wanted application of the accountability law from 1999 onwards.

Today, the minister said, the public would know from facts as to who asked for the NRO and who did not. He explained that through selective application of the law from 1999 onwards, its beneficiaries would have been Chaudhry Sugar Mills and all other assets piled up illegally would become Halal.

Likewise, one of their amendments was that the NAB law should apply to corruption of over Rs1 billion and its beneficiary would have been Ramzan Sugar Mills [worth nearly Rs600 million], Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Asif and Javed Latif. The minister contended that the opposition talks on the FATF were for themselves, as the committee for negotiating the FATF bill was chaired by Shah Mehmood Qureshi and he was one of its members.

Shibli said when the meeting started, the first question was where was the NAB amendment bill. Shah Mehmood Qureshi replied that they would discuss the NAB bill later on to which they had no answer. After that, he said, they left the meeting of the opposition committee and came back half an hour later. He said people should know the background of talking about NRO. “The opposition says they did not ask for NRO; it also says neither the prime minister can give NRO.” Referring to the amendments proposed by the opposition in the NAB Act, he said the opposition had sought amendments to 34 out of 38 clauses of the NAB Act. “It was said that money laundering should be removed as a crime and its benefactors would have been Shahbaz Sharif, Asif Zardari and Faryal Talpur with regard to their assets cases,” he said.

Shibli continued that one of the amendments was related to benami (anonymity) on which the opposition said children and wife should be removed. Another one, he continued, was that disqualification would not take place until the orders of the Supreme Court, meaning that the case should continue for 10-20 years until a decision was made. He said disqualification in some cases was for life time, and in some cases it was for 10 years.

“It was demanded that the period of disqualification from the court should be five years. He said they had an amendment that the NAB would not investigate corruption cases before 2015 and with this amendment the PPP and PML-N would have got NRO Plus. The information minister said the opposition might hold rallies but it should take care of the health of people because corona had increased a lot.

He said the opposition knew that as long as there was Prime Minister Imran Khan, they could not protect their theft. The minister contended that the opposition didn’t care about the law or lives of the people. “They are stubborn but their every ‘festival’ has failed and they will be ashamed even in Larkana. The aim of the opposition is to cover up their corruption; they are corrupt and incompetent and are working to remove a democratic government. On the one hand, they say respect the vote, on the other their statement is undemocratic,” Shibli added.