Law protecting businessmen from NAB may be extended
Special Assistant the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Division Mirza Shahzad Akbar said the presidential ordinance that excluded the business community from the ambit of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) might be extended beyond four months of its constitutional term.
Mr Akbar, while speaking to journalists in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), said that the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999 had been amended through the presidential ordinance aimed at streamlining the affairs of NAB. He dispelled the impression that the process of the accountability had been slowed
to down and said that the government believed in across-theboard accountability.
It may be mentioned that the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 - matters pertaining to "federal or provincial taxation, levies or imposts" - has been excluded from the ambit of the accountability law and the existing "trials shall stand transferred from the relevant Accountability Courts to the criminal courts" dealing with such offences.
The ordinance has not only taken care of the business community, but, to some extent, of politicians and bureaucrats as well, as it redefined the terms "misuse of authority" and "acts done in good faith".
Shahzad Akbar
dispels impression that accountability process has slowed
Talking about the postarrest bail of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been released due to ailment, Mr Akbar said that the government had sought explanation from the legal team of Mr Sharif since his doctors did not provide his medical reports to substantiate their claim that the former prime minister is still seriously ill.
He said that the medical team of Mr Sharif provided some certificates about his health to the Punjab government instead of reports related to the ailments he was suffering from.
Earlier, Mr Akbar administered the oath to the newly elected office-bearers of the Islamabad High Court Journalists Association.