ISLAMABAD: The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has called for the release of all those opposition members being detained by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for no reason after the promulgation of the new ordinance which has curtailed certain powers and limited jurisdiction of the accountability watchdog.

In a statement on Monday, PML-N’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb also asked Prime Minister Imran Khan and NAB chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal to apologise to the nation for holding its elected representatives “hostage through illegal abductions”.

The government had last week promulgated the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2019, providing relief not only to bureaucrats and business community, but also to the politicians from across the aisle.

The two major opposition parties — the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — are critical of the government’s move to curtail powers of NAB, alleging that the prime minister has introduced the ordinance to save himself, his cronies and allies from facing the accountability.

Asks prime minister, NAB chairman to apologise to nation

Ms Aurangzeb had stated that the ordinance had been brought to “dry-clean the PTI regime and to halt all inquiries into their mega corruption scandals in all projects”. The ordinance, she had said, was a recipe cooked by the “selected prime minister” to grant limitless NROs to his blue-eyed beneficiaries and his corrupt regime.

“After promulgation of this ordinance, all the innocent opposition members, including those belonging to the PML-N, should immediately be released,” Ms Aurangzeb said in her latest statement on Monday.

When contacted, Ms Aurangzeb, refuted the impression that she was seeking any relief for the opposition members under the new ordinance, saying that she was simply questioning NAB for placing the innocent people under detention for no reason.

She said the PML-N and its leaders did not agree with any law that was made to benefit a specific group and not for the greater positive reformation of the country and society.

“The PML-N has braved all channels of accountability, no matter how politicallymotivated. The PTI regime failed to prove any of its fictitious allegations in courts. The PML-N does not seek any relief through any such law, especially the one that comes without thorough parliamentary approval and proper constitutional procedure for parliamentary legislation.

“Who shall account for these precious months and years of the lives of these opposition leaders? Who shall be held responsible for this abduction and illegal imprisonment? Who will make the perpetrators of this brutal political victimisation pay?” she asked.

She said the opposition leaders were already getting bails from courts on merit and, therefore, there was no question of seeking any kind of relief through the new ordinance. She said a number of PML-N leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Hamza Shahbaz, Saad Rafique and Miftah Ismail, had already faced NAB and its jails. Moreover, she said, the new ordinance did not provide any relief at all to the opposition members as none of them had been accused of corruption or misuse of authority.

She said that on the one hand, the “incompetent government” had introduced the ordinance to save its own people and, on the other, the innocent opposition members had been languishing in jails for 15 months.

Ms Aurangzeb said the PML-N wanted to bring drastic reforms in NAB on permanent basis which was possible only through legislation in parliament. The PML-N, she said, wanted to change the laws in such a way that no one could use NAB as a political tool to victimise opponents.

She said government officials were coerced into becoming approvers against politicians to malign them and make false references.

“People are being forced to commit perjury which is destroying the social fabric while corrupting and rendering the system of public service delivery dysfunctional.

Ms Aurangzeb, who had served as the information minister in the previous PML-N government, regretted that party secretary general Ahsan Iqbal had been arrested without any justification and illegally just two days before promulgation of the ordinance.

“Why Ahsan Iqbal has been arrested? Does the NAB chairman have any reply?” she asked.

She said there were no charges of corruption, kickbacks, commission or misuse of the authority against Ahsan Iqbal, adding that he had been picked up only because of his loyalty to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and for rendering public service. She alleged that Mr Iqbal had been arrested for exposing the present “incapable and incompetent government”.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2019