ISLAMABAD, Jun 21 (APP): Leader of the House in the Senate Azam Nazeer Tarar on Tuesday said that over 85 percent amendments in the National Accountability Act (Second Amendment) were same as proposed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in their two ordinances promulgated during their tenure.
Responding on the adjournment motion moved by the PTI lawmakers, he said that PTI was criticising the Act without even reading it. He challenged the PTI lawmakers to hold open debate with him over the Act as only anomalies and flaws in the NAB law had been removed.
Tarar, who is also Minister for Law and Justice, said that the NAB laws had been used for political engineering and arm-twisting of opponents for over 20 years.
He said the NAB Act was passed in the National Assembly after thorough debate and discussion for over five hours on each clause of the Act.
He asked the opposition lawmakers to make a comparative table and examine the legislation instead of criticism. He said that during PTI government, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CCI) termed some sections of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, as going against the Shariah.
The incumbent government made all the legislation in this regard with good intention as, “we are in the favor of accountability but fundamental rights of any individual must not be violated,” he said, adding that so called engineered accountability was not acceptable to anyone.
Tarar said that PTI had extended the tenure of NAB chairman as daily wager for further six months.
He said that PTI had also hired 60-year old judge on Rs one million salary. Now, the Ministry of Law and Justice will not appoint NAB chairman, but provincial chief justice will have the authority to appoint them.
APP/amr-rkg-muk
