PPP-led Govt to exclude armed forces from National Accountability Commission

Casting away the demands of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the PPP-led government decided not to include members of the armed forces from the horizon of a proposed bill of National Accountability Commission. It believes that special-anti corruption laws are enough to cover the corrupt practices in the military departments.

Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs proposed the government that one of the reservations of the PML-N legislators raised through dissenting notes related to the clauses of the National Accountability Commission Bill of 2010 was not applicable to bureaucrats, office-holders of local bodies and personnel of the armed forces.

The ministry was of the opinion that Clause M of Section-2 of the Bill explains the ‘Holder of the Public Office’ which includes people in Service of Pakistan, employees in the local councils, members of the autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, corporations, firms and companies administrated by the government both the federal and provincial.

It is vital to mention here that the Holders of Public Office Bill of 2009, which was introduced in the parliament two years ago, was renamed as Accountability Commission Bill of 2010 by the Standing Committee on Law. Owing to differences between PPP and PML-N legislators, the said bill has been stuck at the same point.

After long-standing stalemate between the two major political parties over the projected accountability bill, the government is mulling to present it in the National Assembly without considering the objections raised by the opposition.

The report further informed the Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is expected to endorse the delayed bill in the next meeting scheduled to be held from October 20 to 27, 2011. Following the endorsement, the bill will be moved to the parliament for final approval.

Among the other points the two major parties have differences are appointment of chairman and deputy chairman of the National Accountability Commission, immunity proposed for the crimes if committed and duration of cases to be taken by the commission.

The PML-N, the second largest party in the parliament, is in the favour of appointing a serving judge of the Supreme Court as its chairman while serving a judge of the high court for the slot of deputy chairman. On the other hand, the government is of the opinion that any person having qualifications of becoming a judge should be entitled for the top positions in the commission.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 17 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry