The National Assembly on Wednesday handed a bill to similarly amend the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) with a majority vote, proscribing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from investigating corruption cases of less than Rs500 million.
The assembly of the decrease house was chaired through Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, at some stage in which a movement to suspend the Question Hour, moved with the aid of Federal Minister Khursheed Shah, was accepted.
The Second Amendment Bill 2022 to further alternate the NAO 1999 changed into offered before the House.
The invoice turned into presented by way of Minister of State for Law and Justice Senator Shahadat Awan, which was then sooner or later accepted.
According to the accredited draft of the bill, the president’s authority of appointing judges to the accountability courts has been withdrawn and confined to the federal government at the same time as the tenure of the prosecutor popular has been extended by using three years.
Section 16 of NAB regulation has also been amended to limit the prosecution of an accused to the accountability courtroom in whose jurisdiction the crime came about.
Moreover, NAB’s authority to research instances with the help of the high courts has been withdrawn and no different authorities groups may be mandated to assist the anti-corruption frame.
Furthermore, the accused can be knowledgeable about the costs against them and would be capable of defend themselves earlier than the court.
The amendments additionally make it possible for the chairman of the anti-corruption watchdog to advocate termination of a reference earlier than the indictment of the accused.
Speaking in the House, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif supported the factors raised by means of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Noor Alam Khan and said the exemption of establishments from accountability became a negation of the supremacy vested in parliament beneath the Constitution.
He maintained that Noor had raised an vital factor: in keeping with the Constitution, while parliament was the ideally suited body, it must stand behind the PAC.
“The PAC is the maximum influential committee of parliament. If every body demanding situations it in terms of its paintings, limits, we have to convey the problem to the House,” he delivered.
The minister in addition referred to that it become a way of life all around the global – people who do not forget themselves as “sacred cows” should be summoned to parliament.
“I am also a witness. They did now not come even once after being summoned commonly,” he delivered, regarding the human beings he described as “sacred cows”.
Asif stated that a excessive court docket had ordered no longer to interfere in provincial matters after the 18th modification, but the duty commission became closed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
“However, the court docket remained silent. There changed into accountability in all different provinces, why turned into it closed in K-P?” he raised the query. “They [previous PTI government] continued to call themselves the State of Madina, however closed the organization where they’d their rule,” he introduced.At approximately the identical time an AFP reporter based totally in Pingtan, on China’s coast, witnessed the Chinese army launching several small projectiles into the water, “from the proximity of nearby navy installations flying into the sky observed via plumes of white smoke and loud booming sounds round”.Notices of the physical activities recognized six regions encircling Taiwan, with warnings for all ships and plane to “no longer input the relevant sea areas and airspace”. Some of the zones overlap with Taiwan’s territorial waters, and are close to key transport ports.
