By Shakeel Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were opposing the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-related laws after failure of getting a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
Responding to a tweet by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, he said that she was trying to mislead the people, adding that there was no change in the FATF-related laws related to power of arrest, and making an offense cognizable was not draconian, hundreds of offenses were cognizable under law. He said that PPP and PML-N opposed the FATF-related bills simply for not getting an NRO, (a reference of granting amnesty to politicians and other individuals by former president Pervez Musharraf in 2007, by quashing various corruption and criminal cases against them so they could return to the country and engage in the democratic process).
He also said that each and every requirement of FATF was in written form and both opposition parties were quite well versed with this reality. “So let’s stop lie and misleading people. They have been misled for long enough. Nation also knows opposition’s track record of people friendly laws made under their regimes like POCA [Prevention of Corruption Act],” he added.
Sherry had said that the bills were opposed in the Senate because powers to arrest without warrants were being given to police and investigators. This was neither required by FATF nor was it defensible in any form of even the most illiberal democracy, she had added.
On the other hand, The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition against the appointment of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar.
Chief Justice Athar Minallah announced a nine-page long verdict on the petition moved by Syed Pervaiz Zahoor. He had reserved the verdict after a preliminary hearing of the case.
The petitioner alleged that Shahzad Akbar is illegally exercising powers and through abuse of his authority he is influencing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other investigating agencies.
He requested the court to declare the appointment of Shahzad Akbar as Chairman Assets Recovery Unit and Adviser on NAB as null and void.
“The petitioner has not placed on record any material in support of his contention that respondent no.3 [Shahzad Akbar] may have interfered with the matters which exclusively fall within the domain of the Bureau under the Ordinance of 1999 or the Agency under the Act of 1973,” read the verdict.
“There is also nothing on record to indicate that the rights of the petitioner have been prejudiced by an act of the respondent so as to treat him as an aggrieved person for the purpose of Article 199 of the Constitution.”
