NAB ordinance

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in the second half of March 2020, nearly three months had lapsed since the NAB Second Amendment Ordinance (2019) was promulgated in the last week of December 2019. Now according to the constitution, the said ordinance will either lapse by the end of April or it will be extended for another four months. The PTI-led government has issued over two dozen presidential ordinances in less than two years since it came to power in 2018. Though the government has shown remarkable alacrity in issuing these ordinances, it has failed to display a similar promptness in converting these ordinances into acts of parliament after due process. The same applies to the NAB ordinance under discussion that federal minister for law and justice says will be made into a act by convening the next parliamentary session.

It is not clear how and when that will be done. So far as we know, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice took up a number of key bills including the NAB (Second Amendment Bill) for discussion in the last week of February. Another constitutional amendment bill seeking to limit powers of the president to promulgate ordinances was also said to be on the agenda. Both these bills were important and had to be taken by the government seriously, but there has been sluggish progress on both matters. Covid-19 cannot be used as an excuse in this matter as most meetings can be held with social distancing and even by using video conferencing technology which is already being used even by educational institutions. The NAB ordinance curtailing certain key powers of the accountability body should be discussed and agreed to by both the government and the opposition, per good democratic practice. It is noteworthy that the ordinance was introduced to mitigate the concerns of the business community about NAB actions.

Since this ordinance is likely to have far reaching ramifications for the accountability process, it must be discussed threadbare so that no misuse of authority takes place in the name of accountability as has been happening lately. And even when the ordinance is in place, NAB is continuing with its highhanded practices by even targeting business people. In January 2020 when services chief’s extension bill was passed, the government had agreed to cooperate with the opposition for legislation on key public issues. Since then, the government has shown a clear lack of interest in taking the opposition on board. The ordinance needs substantive improvement before it becomes a law. Therefore, it is imperative that the government start consulting the opposition in earnest. Just extending and issuing new presidential ordinances is not the right way to democratic legislation.