ISLAMABAD: As the most crucial ordinance curtailing powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding action against businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians promulgated by the government in December last year is lapsing on Sunday (today) after completing its constitutional 120-day life, the government has decided to introduce a new one to ensure continuity and avoid legal and technical hitches.

The decision to bring a new ordinance was announced by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser through his official Twitter account after presiding over a meeting at his residence in this regard here on Saturday.

Sources said the meeting was attended by federal Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, newly-appointed Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar.

Interestingly, the speaker through his tweet first claimed that no decision could be made regarding the fate of the NAB Ordinance in the “consultative meeting” and then in the same tweet declared that “a new amended ordinance will be introduced after consultations with all the stake-holders”.

Govt to introduce new ordinance to ensure continuity and avoid legal, technical hitches

The speaker further said that they had decided to take into confidence the opposition parties and all the stake-holders in this regard.

The ordinance is lapsing at a time when no house of the parliament is in session and a debate is on in the country on convening sittings of the National Assembly and the Senate in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

President Dr Arif Alvi had promulgated the NAB (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, dubbed by many critics as a “mother of all NROs” to businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians, on Dec 28 last year.

The opposition parties had initially made a hue and cry over the government’s act of promulgating the ordinance accusing the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) of taking another U-turn on its slogan of across-the-board accountability, but later not only agreed to hold negotiations with the government, but some of the politicians even took relief under the ordinance.

The NAB Ordinance, 2019, had been introduced basically to provide relief to the country’s businessmen by excluding their cases pertaining to “federal or provincial taxation, levies or imposts” within the purview of the accountability law and transferring the existing trials from the accountability courts to the criminal courts dealing with such offences.

The ordinance has not only taken care of the business community, but, to some extent, of politicians and bureaucrats as well, as it redefined the terms “misuse of authority” and “acts done in good faith”.

Talking to Dawn, one of the participants of the Saturday’s meeting said the decision to bring a new ordinance had been made since the government could not re-promulgate the same ordinance and under the 18th Amendment in the Constitution, an ordinance could only be granted a one-time extension through a resolution in any house of the parliament. Moreover, he said, the ordinance had already been laid by the government in the form of the bill in the Parliament and was pending before the standing committees.

He said that it had been decided that the proposals submitted by the opposition regarding changes in the NAB laws would also be incorporated in the new law. He admitted that the PTI had to face criticism from within after promulgation of the ordinance as some of the members were of the view that the party had compromised its main slogan of “across-the-board accountability.” He said while drafting the new law, they would keep the party’s manifesto in mind and would not include any provision which would make NAB a toothless organisation.

Constitutional vacuum

On the other hand, parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate Sherry Rehman regretted the government’s decision to bring another ordinance without prior consultation with the opposition parties.

Ms Rehman claimed that the government had not consulted the opposition over the issue for the last three months or more.

“The government is operating in full constitutional vacuum,” she alleged, regretting that the consultation meeting that took place on Saturday must have been taken place earlier to avoid such a situation.

Ms Rehman said the government had no option but to bring a new law as it could not re-promulgate the same ordinance under the constitution. She was of the view that even a new ordinance could bring more trouble for the government in the light of some of the observations of the apex court in this regard.

The PPP senator recalled that they had a number of meetings on the issue of changes in NAB laws and even exchanged some drafts, but alleged that the government had never responded to the opposition’s proposals.

Ms Rehman once again asked the government to immediately convene sessions of the Parliament for carrying out legislative business as it was not only the NAB ordinance which was lapsing, but some had already lapsed and some were about to be lapsed in the coming future.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2020