ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary parties failed to reach a consensus on the type of accountability structure in the country even at their 19th sitting on Wednesday.

At a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Accountability Laws held at Parliament House, almost all parties, including the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), agreed on replacement of the National Accountability Bureau (for being controversial and partial) with the National Accountability Commission. However, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) were of the opinion that effective measures should be taken to improve the performance of NAB instead of replacing it with NAC.

It appears that the committee, which is discussing the proposed NAC Bill-2017, may not reach any conclusion and the entire exercise will remain futile.

Initially, all the parties had agreed on an across-the-board accountability, but at the 13th and subsequent meetings of the committee, the PTI, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and JI had raised objections when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) brought a proposal for putting generals and judges under the purview of the proposed NAC.

However, the PPP itself took a U-turn and withdrew the proposal, compelling its mover Senator Farhatullah Babar to step down as a member of the committee.

Since PPP leaders were absent from Wednesday’s meeting, the party’s point of view could not come to the fore.

The PTI and JI are against any change in the laws governing NAB as they fear that the government is pushing forward the legislation to protect ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

The family of holders of public office should also be brought under the purview of accountability laws, PTI’s Shireen Mazari proposed at the meeting, adding that the government appeared to be reluctant on this proposal.

The leaders of parliamentary parties also failed to reach a consensus on the procedure of filing a corruption reference against an accused.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Law Minister Zahid Hamid said the committee discussed the definition of “cognizance of offence” and “corruption and corrupt practices”.

“We want someone other than the NAB chairman to take a decision on the filing of a reference against an accused,” the minister said, adding: “We would rather suggest that the Accountability Commission make this decision rather than the NAB chairman.”

In reply to a question, the minister said the decision to keep NAB in its current form or replace it with NAC would be taken through a vote. The parliamentary committee will meet again on Friday.

The PTI and MQM had on Oct 11 — the 13th meeting of the committee — taken a U-turn and opposed the PPP proposal for accountability of generals and judges, shattering hopes for the approval of the almost finalised NAC bill.

The bill “does not introduce a single measure of reform that would improve the current accountability process or bring corrupt elements to task,” Shireen Mazari had said in a letter submitted to the committee at its 15th meeting on Oct 17, on behalf of the PTI.

The letter also objected to the lack of a time frame for applicability of the proposed law. It termed the creation of a separate agency for prosecuting accountability cases “illusory and illogical”.

The PTI also questioned the retention of the ‘voluntary return’ clause and the proposed provision to reduce the punishment for an offender from a maximum of 14 years to seven years if the illegal gain is fully recovered.

The JI rejected the bill at the 15th meeting of the committee held on Oct 24. Its parliamentary leader Sahibzada Tariqullah had told the committee that his party had rejected the bill because it thought that there were some flaws in it and that it did not have the requirements needed for developing a better accountability system in the country. “Accountability laws should be improved,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2017