ISLAMABAD: Amid growing criticism of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government over amendments to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws through a controversial ordinance, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar on Sunday announced that the new ordinance would be presented before parliament.

The new ordinance [The National Account­ability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019] would be presented before the parliament so that any further improvement required in the new law could be brought through the assembly, said Mr Akbar while addressing a press conference along with Minister for Communications Murad Saeed.

The PM’s aide said the opposition misinterpreted the new ordinance, believing that NAB powers had been clipped just to give benefit to PTI leaders. The major reason to amend NAB laws was to give protection and a sense of security to the bureaucrats who were reluctant to sign even a single file, bringing the government machinery to a standstill, he later told reporters during an informal talk.

PM aide says NAB ordinance to be placed before parliament

It was quite important to change the existing laws so that no one was wrongly made to suffer for the crime he had not committed, he explained. “We do not want to implicate anyone [public office holder] in any case if he had done anything in ‘good faith’,” he said. However, he added, courts would decide “who will get the benefit of doing anything in good faith as mentioned in the new ordinance”.

“A clause has been added to the new ordinance to ascertain that when a person — a public office holder or a minister or a businessman — uses his authority and is charged with having misused it, it will be examined whether there is personal monetary benefit attached to their decision. If such an advantage is proved then will it be considered corruption,” he added.

Mr Akbar expressed the hope that the opposition, which was criticising the government over the new ordinance, would not oppose it in parliament. He claimed that amendments to the NAB law would not only benefit the bureaucrats but also businessmen and legislators.

However, federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry was of the opinion that NAB and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) should be merged. “In developed countries, only one such premier anti-corruption body exists,” he said. The minister said the parliament should decide the merger of the FIA and NAB.

Firdous Ashiq Awan, the PM’s aide on information, said under the second amendment ordinance, honest public office holders would be able to make decisions in the public interest ‘fearlessly’ to perform their constitutional responsibilities.

Mr Akbar told the media that the NAO 1999 was a stringent law, which was needed to eliminate the menace of rampant corruption in the country. “Previously, a person could be embroiled in a corruption case simply for having made a wrong decision,” he said, adding that one of the aims of the new ordinance was to address the clause of “misuse of authority”.

He said some proposed amendments, which were not made part of the new ordinance, were being criticised by some opposition leaders to take political advantage. According to the proposed changes which were not made part of the ordinance, “NAB cannot take up cases involving less than Rs500 million and reducing the period of physical remand of the accused in NAB’s custody from 90 to 14 day”, he added.

Under an amendment, the PM’s aide said, all tax-related issues would be dealt by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and not by NAB. “It is very important to draw a line between corruption and tax evasion,” the PM’s aide announced.

Under Section 4(2)B NAB law will not be applicable to any person who himself was not a public officer holder, had no relation with a public office holder, and did not have any means of using authority. However, cases in which government office holders use their authority for kickbacks fall within the scope of NAB investigations, he added.

Mr Akbar said in cases of ‘assets beyond known sources of income’, a government official could be questioned by NAB but not a common man. The common man would be investigated by the FBR, he said. “But if a common man or businessman cheats the public at large, for example with a Modarba scam, the case will fall within NAB’s purview,” he explained.

He said the third exception was a breach of trust in the capacity of “merchant, attorney, bank or agent” and if any of these professionals cheat the public, they will be dealt by NAB.

Later, in an informal chat, Mr Akbar said: “No action will be taken against any public office holder over the rendition of any advice, opinion or report by them unless proof of corruption or benefit is provided.” He said the major reason to amend NAB laws was to give protection and sense of security to the bureaucracy.

Minister for Communication Murad Saeed said the opposition leaders, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, should know that his father [former president Asif Ali Zardari] had taken an NRO from the United States when he allowed the CIA to carry out drone strike against alleged terrorists in the country.

The minister then recalled “achievements” of the PTI government and claimed that 2020 would be the year of prosperity in which people who had been suffering since the time his party came to power would be benefitted.

In a series of tweets, Firdous Ashiq Awan said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s jihad against corruption was on with full force. She said NAB was supposed to carry out action against mega corruption scandals and it would do its job with reinforced commitment. She said action would definitely be taken against the government employees who had secured personal interests through procedural flaws or departmental lacunas. She said the public office holders who had increased their assets manifolds, misusing their authorities would not be spared of action.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2019