CURTAILMENT OF NAB’S POWERS CHALLENGED IN LHC

LAHORE — The amendment to the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, was on Saturday challenged in the Lahore High Court, Dawn reported.

“The watchdog authority has been chained by joining hands with the parliamentarians, civil administration and the business community,” lawyer Ishtiaq A. Chaudhry stated in his ‘public interest’ petition.

He argued that according to the Article 25(1) of the Constitution, all citizens are equal before law and they have right to equal protection of law.

The petitioner said the special undue facility accorded to suspects of the NAB whereby its powers to arrest and investigate had been compromised with and a new plea-bargain before investigation had been introduced, was highly discriminatory.

He pleaded that Article 5 of the Constitution provided for loyalty to the state and the recent amendments introduced through the ordinance were likely to make public office holder more corrupt and disloyal to the state.

The lawyer argued that the restriction imposed on the issuance of public statements by the NAB on inquiries was in direct contravention of the fundamental right to know, provided in Article 19-A of the Constitution.

The petitioner also questioned the curtailment of the role of the NAB chief in appointment of the probe agency’s prosecutor general and reducing maximum limit of physical remand from 90 days to 14 days under the amendments.