ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: Just three months before the expiry of its term, the PPP-led coalition government has managed to get the previously controversial fair trial bill passed from the National Assembly unanimously through a smart move of withholding the contentious accountability bill.

After getting the fair trial bill passed with the support of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) from the National Assembly on Thursday, the government now seems to have pinned its hopes on winning the support of the main opposition to ensure a smooth sailing for the accountability bill through parliament in the next session.

Although the government has the required numbers in parliament to get the much-delayed National Accountability Commission (NAC) bill passed from the parliament, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, like his predecessor Yousuf Raza Gilani, seems to be eager to take credit for passage of an important piece of legislation with consensus.

Sources in the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) told Dawn that the government had planned to get both the fair trial and accountability bills passed from the National Assembly on the same day during the session that ended on Friday, but later it decided to bring only the fair trial bill to the house realising that the PML-N had strong reservations on the accountability law and in retaliation, it could even oppose the fair trial bill. Since the government wanted to get the fair trial bill with consensus, the sources said, it decided to drop the proposed accountability law from the agenda fearing the PML-N might go for a noisy protest or stage a walkout over it and this could hamper even the passage of the law on which the two parties had some understandings.

The PML-N during the meetings of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice had stated that it supported the fair trial bill in principle, but wanted certain amendments in it to further safeguard the fundamental rights of the citizens.

On the other hand, the PML-N had announced that it would block the passage of the NAC bill seeking replacement of the Musharraf-era National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with a powerful and independent NAC with full force as it was not acceptable to it in the present form.

Amid a big show of political accommodation, the National Assembly on Dec 20 had passed the fair trial bill to permit state interception of private communications mainly to track terrorists, after the government accepted 32 amendments proposed by the PML-N. All these PML-N’s amendments had earlier been rejected by the NA’s standing committee that had approved the draft of the bill on Dec 11.

The same committee had passed the NAC Bill 2012 on November 14 through a majority vote ignoring the opposition’s reservations.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, Law Minister Farooq Naek said the accountability bill could not be presented before the house with the fair trial bill since the committee had not prepared its report for presentation before the National Assembly.

When asked why the committee had not prepared the report on the bill that it had approved on Nov 14 whereas it succeeded in presenting the report of the fair trial bill that it had passed only a week ago, his reply was “this question must be asked from the committee members.”

Responding to a question, the law minister said that despite passage of the bill by the committee, he was ready to meet the PML-N leadership, if needed, in order to achieve a consensus on the accountability law like the government did at the time of the passage of the fair trial bill.

Mr Naek, who played an active role in developing a last minute consensus on the fair trial bill, said the accountability law would now be put before the National Assembly in the next session.

When contacted, PML-N’s Zahid Hamid said that so far the government had made no contact with the opposition on the issue of the accountability law. He, however, said if the government wanted to get the proposed law passed with consensus, it would have to accept the PML-N’s proposals like it did at the time of the passage of the fair trial bill.

After attending the NA committee’s meeting on Nov 14, Mr Hamid had stated that the PPP had rejected all of the opposition’s proposals leaving no choice for it but to oppose the bill when it would be presented before the National Assembly. “We will stop the passage of the bill with full force”, Mr Hamid had stated when asked about the party’s future strategy.

It was after three years of wrangling that the government had brought the new bill to the National Assembly on October 8 aimed at creating an independent accountability commission replacing the controversial NAB to prosecute corruption by holders of public office.

Introducing the bill, the law minister had announced that the government was bringing the new law after withdrawing a previous bill that had been moved by former law minister Babar Awan in 2009 and that remained in the doldrums due to the strong opposition by the PML-N in the standing committee that deliberated upon it in more than 30 meetings.