Senate opposition disapproves NAB ordinance

ISLAMABAD: Joint opposition, backed by some treasury members in the Senate, on Wednesday disapproved the recently promulgated National Accountability Amendment (NAB) Ordinance, envisaging disqualification of the corrupt public office holders and public servants, availing themselves of plea bargain to escape punishment.

The government faced the wrath of the opposition senators for allowing the Qatari royals to hunt houbara bustard and hence harass farmers and illegally occupy their land.

The resolution moved by 31 senators belonging to PPPP, PTI, PkMAP, Fata and others, disapproved the NAB Ordinance; the third time in less than two years that the opposition-dominated Senate struck down a presidential ordinance.

The government plea for withdrawal of the resolution was rejected by the combined opposition, prompting the law minister to allege that it was an attempt by the opposition to promote corruption.

With 33 votes against 21, the resolution was adopted by the House in head count by Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani, as Law and Justice Minister Zahid Hamid warned the opposition to withdraw the resolution as disproving the bill would send a negative message to masses.

PPP’s parliamentary leader Senator Taj Haider said that there was no need to promulgate an ordinance in haste as the Senate session had already been summoned but the government preferred an ordinance over legislation.

He contended that a lifetime ban on a public servant or a public office holder in case of availing himself of the voluntary return or plea bargain was a violation of the Constitution.

Haider emphasised, “We are against the plea bargain, but disqualifying a person for lifetime is not justified: the ordinance to punish a bureaucrat is not meant to curb a corrupt bureaucrat but it is cover up and we are bringing in own private member’s bill”.

To this, Zahid Hamid said that there was immense criticism on the plea bargain especially by the Supreme Court as well the lawmakers themselves, and this was the reason the government wanted to bring in the ordinance.

“We covered all the aspects which were pointed out by the Supreme Court, the Senate chairman who also criticised the plea bargain in an open letter to people, so it was done to eradicate the menace of corruption,” the minister maintained.

He said that the corrupt bureaucrats involved in billions of rupees corruption escaped scot-free due to plea bargain and no departmental inquiries were initiated against them, and such a law was need of the hour.

He regretted that a public servant after committing billions of rupees embezzlement was not dismissed and instead allowed to continue on his previous position, which means the clause was to promote the corrupt practices.

“I amazed to see what message you want to convey. Do you want to promote corruption by disapproving this ordinance? Do you want the corrupt to go scot-free? If a person is corrupt he should be disqualified forever,” he maintained.

Rabbani chipped in to say that there was a need for ‘one roof and one law through which all the corrupt whether in judiciary, military, civil or any other department could be made accountable.

The federal government came under fire for allowing the Qatari princes to hunt houbara bustard in the deserts of Balochistan and elsewhere despite stiff resistance by local people and their elected representatives.

Speaking on a calling attention notice moved by five senators belonging to PTI, ANP, PkMAP and PPP, Usman Khan Kakar accused Minister for Safron Lt Gen (R) Abdul Qadir Balcoh of ‘hoodwinking locals to please his bosses in the centre’.

Ilyas Bilor of ANP warned that allowing Qatri Sheikhs to hunt despite opposition by the people might result in killing of either the guests or the locals, as people were not happy with government decision to allow hunting in their area.

Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani of PPP said that the prime minister should take notice of the issue or it could have serious repercussion as the provincial government was not consulted before giving permits to Qatris, who were there for hunting of the bird.

Responding to the notice, the law minister said that houbara bustard was not endangered species, and sustainable use of the bird was allowed, adding the permits for hunting were issued by the provincial governments.

“The role of the Foreign Affairs Ministry is to allocate the hunting area and the rest of the formalities are done by the provincial government including providing security to the guest hunters,” the minister explained.

He said that the Ministry of Climate Change had formulated a code of conduct for the hunters and shared it with all the embassies to share the details with the dignitaries of their respective countries.

“We have made it clear that the hunting will only be for ten days and hunting limits is 100 birds and not more than that, besides it’s also mandatory that the hunting will be carried out without destroying the flora and fauna of the area,” he added.

Senate chairman directed the law minister to include the parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the Senate in the parliamentary committee, headed by Speaker National Assembly that was deliberating upon the issue of military courts.

On a point of public importance, Usman Khan Kakar of PkMAP said that a committee, having representation only from the National Assembly could not be called a committee of Parliament, so the committee discussing the issue of military courts must include the parliamentary leaders of all the parties in the Senate.

“I think he is right to some extent and if that is a committee of Parliament, the parliamentary of their respective parties should also be included in the committee, and if you are bringing any bill [on military courts], it should also be presented in Senate,” Rabbani said.

The law minister said that the committee was consulting the parliamentary leaders to develop a consensus on military courts, and if they agreed to bring a bill on military courts, it would definitely be tabled in the Senate.

Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Sirajul Haq reminded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of his announcement of getting Dr Afia Siddiqui released from the US prison if he was voted to power, but when he came to power after 2013 elections, he forgot all his promises made with the family of Dr Afia.

Siraj demanded the government to make tangible efforts for her, as the outgoing US president Barrack Obama had the constitutional power to pardon any prisoner before his departure.