SHC directs Centre to submit progress report on draft rules of NAB

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday took an exception to non-filing of comments by the federal government with regard to the status of National Accountability Bureau’s draft rules and directed the federal law officer to submit specific statement to show the draft rules for regulating the working of NAB matters.

Hearing a petition for framing the NAB’s investigation rules in compliance of Section-34 of National Accountability Ordinance, the SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, inquired from the federal law officer about the status of NAB’s draft rules which were under scrutiny in the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The federal law officer and the NAB counsel sought further time to submit a specific statement to show the draft rules for regulating working of NAB matters. The court observed that the petition was pending for more than one year and various directions have been passed to the respondents to come up with a specific stance regarding the rules, the stage or before whom the draft rules have been submitted for approval. The court observed that nothing concrete has been filed by the government law officer in this regard and still further time has been sought. The court directed the law officers to file a progress report about the draft rules by October 25.

The petitioner, M. Tariq Mansoor, Advocate, had submitted a petition that NAB’s investigation and inquiries rules have not been framed despite promulgation of the Ordinance since 1999. The NAB’s special prosecutor earlier submitted that the draft rules were forwarded to the Ministry of Law and Justice on January 4, 2021, in compliance of Section-34 of the ordinance to be submitted before the president of Pakistan for approval. The NAB prosecutor, however, submitted that draft rules were still under scrutiny in the Ministry of Law and Justice.