ISLAMABAD: Responding to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s criticism of amendments to the NAB law, Federal Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazir Tarar on Tuesday said the appointment of the NAB chairman will be finalized in a few days and 80 per cent of the amendments are proposed. Most of the NAB law proceeded from the ordinance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the rest were derived from court decisions.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Mr Tarar said PTI has amended the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) – the law that governs the National Accountability Bureau – to bring to life the services of its favourite, retired Justice Javed Iqbal. To expand across.
He said the present government has rationalized the law by reversing the amendment to give extension to the NAB chairman.
Responding to a question, the Law Minister said that the name of the new chairman of the NAB would be finalized this week. He said since retired judge Maqbool Bakir was reluctant to accept the motion, his name has been dropped.
He pointed out that Mr Bakir was not interested in taking over the post of NAB President due to the constitutional restriction of Article 207.
Mr Tarar told PTI that the government consistently introduced ordinances to amend the NAO, adding that around 80 pc of the amendments to the NAO were carried forward from those ordinances in the recent law.
The remaining 20pc of the amendments were derived from decisions of the Supreme Court and High Courts, saying that the obligation of evidence from an accused to a prosecution was shifted in line with the recommendation of the Council of Islamic Ideology.
The Law Minister said that the Supreme Court had said in Salman Rafiq’s case that NAB was used for political engineering. He said that NAB has unbridled powers to arrest and remand for 90 days is against the dignity of citizens.
Published in Dawn, June 22, 2022