From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the coalition partner of the federal government, termed the recent amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law as ” inappropriate”.
In a statement issued here, the MQM-P spokesman said that extending the NAB’s remand of an accused from 14 to 40 days ‘will not be beneficial either’.
The MQM-P also criticized the reduction of the minimum sentence for NAB officials found guilty of misconduct.
“Reducing the punishment period from five to two years for an NAB official, who makes the fabricated case, is also unfathomable,” the MQM-P maintained.
The party said that due to NAB laws and their wrong application, the country’s economy and politics have already suffered ‘irreparable damage’.
The MQM-P demanded that amendments to the NAB law should be revisited very carefully.
Earlier on Monday, acting President Yousuf Raza Gilani approved an ordinance to amend the existing law, empowering the NAB to keep an accused on physical remand for up to 40 days as
Before the ordinance, a person arrested by the NAB could be remanded into the bureau’s custody for 14 days. However, under the amended law, the duration of physical remand has been increased to 40 days.
Furthermore, the punishment for NAB officials for making false cases has been reduced from 5 years to 2 years.
The ordinance was passed amidst a hearing of the NAB amendments case by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, challenged by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan.
The previous Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government approved amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in a bid to curtail the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
