The federal government has proposed amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Act, according to which the government seeks to extend the tenure of the Chairman NAB, Deputy Chairman and Prosecutor General.
According to the details, under the present NAB Act, the term of office of the Chairman is 4 years and non-extensible while the term of office of the Deputy Chairman, Prosecutor General is 3 years and non-extensible.
Under the proposed amendments, the NAB law will not apply to federal and provincial tax matters and taxes, levies and duties will be investigated by the relevant agencies instead of the NAB, while the cases will go to the criminal court.
NAB law will not apply to a person who has no direct or indirect relationship with a public official and if there is no evidence of financial benefit from a government scheme or scheme against a public official, even if there is irregularity of rules and regulations. In addition, if the assets of a public official do not match his sources of income, the actual value will be determined by the District Collector and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The misuse of power will be deemed to be an abuse of power only on the basis of solid evidence relating to the misappropriation of a public official and his dependents, whereas the NAB law does not apply to a well-intentioned act of a public official.
The proposed draft has been submitted to the Opposition for consultation in the Parliamentary Committee on Legislation.
NAB Amendment Bill 2019 referred to Committee on Law
It may be recalled that on December 27 last year, the Federal Cabinet had approved the NAB Amendment Ordinance 2019 through circulation, after which President Dr. Arif Alvi had also signed the ordinance. The ordinance came into force after the President signed the NAB Amendment Ordinance, but the opposition reacted strongly to the ordinance and it was challenged in the Supreme Court.
On the other hand, on January 15, 2020, the Supreme Court had given the government three months to bring a new NAB law in a self-notice case related to plea bargain under Section 25-A of the NAB Ordinance. The court had remarked that it expects the authorities to resolve the issue related to NAB law and the appropriate law regarding NAB law will be passed by the parliament. Will do’.
It may be recalled that under Section 25-A of the NAB Ordinance, a suo motu notice was taken against Plebiscite in 2016 by its Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali.
Stay tuned to Baaghi TV for latest news and updates!
