The Chairman of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, has convened another meeting of the committee on Sept 16 to discuss the notes of dissent.

According to sources, the government plans to present the national accountability commission (NAC) bill during the next session of the National Assembly, expected to begin on Sept 20, and the meeting of the standing committee has been convened in a final effort to evolve consensus on the draft.

Mr Shah said he personally believed that some points raised by the opposition were valid.

The former deputy speaker of the National Assembly said he was in favour of appointing a serving judge of the Supreme Court as chairman of the proposed commission.

He said he had suggested that the tenure of the NAC chairman should be of five years, instead of the three proposed in the draft of the bill.

He said the process for removal of the chairman should be the same as that for superior court judges.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, told reporters last week that the government had communicated to him its readiness to accept all formulations submitted by PML-N with one minor exception.

However, he said that in view of past experience the opposition wanted the understanding to be given a written form. The standing committee had approved the bill on April 15, but its chairman refused to share the final draft with the members belonging to the opposition.

If approved by parliament, the bill will replace the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with a powerful NAC.

The PML-N has opposed several clauses of the bill.

It insists that the head of the NAC should be a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, whereas the draft law suggests that the office can be held “either by a sitting judge, or a retired judge or any person qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court”.

The PML-N is also against an immunity proposed for a holder of public office for any wrongdoing committed in 'good faith'. It suggests that the commission be allowed to pursue cases since 1947, but the bill proposes that the NAC will not carry out investigations against any crime committed before 1985.

The party says the proposed bill does not require the government to ask foreign states to freeze and forfeit assets involved in an investigation.

Chaudhry Nisar said the government had conveyed to him that it was ready to accommodate PML-N's proposals on condition the opposition would not press its demand that the NAC must be headed by a serving SC judge.

He said the government had expressed willingness to remove the clause under which any person qualified to be an SC judge had been declared eligible to become chairman of the proposed NAC.

The PML-Q's Riaz Fatiana welcomed convening a meeting of the committee and said he was ready to support any changes made in the draft for making it a consensus document.

On the other hand, PML-N's Anusha Rehman said the committee was bound to discuss the dissenting notes before giving final approval to the draft.