ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be appointed by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, and not the president, under amended laws.
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be appointed by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, and not the president, under amended laws.
This was announced by a special parliamentary committee on the ‘Holder of Public Offices Bill of 2009’ after a meeting here on Tuesday.
Besides discussing the eligibility criteria, the committee decided that the tenure of the NAB chairman should be three years. The meeting was presided over by Begum Nasim Chaudhry.
The committee suggested anyone found involved in corruption should be awarded a sentence which might extend to a seven-year prison term.
It also called for empowering the NAB chairman or the court to freeze the property of any accused on reasonable grounds.
The meeting was attended by Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Mohammad Ijaz Virk, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Zahid Hamid, Anusha Rehman Khan, Riaz Fatyana, Tariq Shabbir, Saira Afzal Tarar and S.A. Iqbal Qadri.
Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Law and Justice, Malik Hakim Khan, also attended the meeting.
The government is considering renaming NAB as National Accountability Commission or National Commission of Accountability because its current name symbolises ‘an era of political victimisation’.
A significant aspect of the new legislation is that it would bar any military official from becoming its chairman.
Under the new legislation, the head of the accountability commission would be a retired judge or a senior lawyer or a civilian to be appointed by the president.
Recent reports have suggested that the government is considering winding up the NAB and establish another authority to deal with white-collar crime.
The sources said the post of deputy chairman, currently held by a military official, would be abolished in the new set up.
At present NAB, which was once one of the most powerful state institutions, stands crippled because of lack of funds.
Analysts argued that the promulgation of National Reconciliation Ordinance sounded the death-knell for NAB because it provided ‘immunity to politicians involved in corruption’. The ordinance also barred the bureau from instituting further cases against them
Source : DAWN