Govt, PML-N trade barbs over ‘NRO’

ISLAMABAD: The long-running tug of war between the government and the PML-N over the “NRO” — an amnesty — continued on Sunday, with information minister Shibli Faraz tweeting images of a draft of the opposition’s legislative proposals, which he characterised as evidence of their demands for an NRO.

Faraz said “history has shown that PML-N leadership has always adopted the path of escaping from the country and the law”. He added: “These were the sources and documents through which the NRO was requested.”

In the two scanned pages, Faraz highlighted sections of the draft which sought to amend the National Accountability Ordinance, and also highlighted the names of opposition members who backed the draft, out of a total of 25 lawmakers.

He highlighted the names of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Rana Sanaullah, Ahsan Iqbal and Javed Abbasi. Names of Pakistan Peoples Party lawmakers like Sherry Rehman, Naveed Qamar, Pervez Ashraf and Farook Naek were not highlighted.

Shibli Faraz said for several days, the PML-N leadership “had been giving the impression that they have not demanded any concessions” but the draft of the amendments to the NAB ordinance given by the opposition belied their claim.

The PML-N swiftly hit back. Directly responding to Faraz, party spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted that the “incompetent blue-eyed boy” cannot even legislate, so the National Assembly Speaker had constituted a parliamentary committee of the National Assembly to review the FATF laws.

She also put up a scanned image of a July 23 parliamentary meeting in which government and opposition lawmakers met to discuss amendments to FATF-related bills. She highlighted the names of attendees — Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak, Asad Umar, Shafqat Mehmood, Shibli Faraz, Shireen Mazari, Babar Awan, Shahzad Akbar, Ali Mohammad Khan, Malik Amin Dogar and Farogh Naseem. The PML-N lawmakers which Faraz highlighted in his scans were also listed as part of the deliberations.

“This committee was approved by the House. Shibli Sahib, did the Speaker ask for an NRO? Did the whole House ask for NRO?” she asked. She said by putting up images of the draft, would the government accuse the Speaker of soliciting NROs. “The committee also includes government officials who are involved in Malam Jabba, BRT, Billion Tree Tsunami, helicopters, 23 secret accounts, foreign funding corruption, and those wanted in flour and sugar theft cases. They have been given NRO for two years,” she alleged.

She added: “Opposition members have been imprisoned, jailed and imprisoned by the NAB, their innocence has been upheld by the Supreme Court and high court decisions, and an international human rights body (Human Rights Watch) has criticised the NAB-Niazi nexus.”

Aurangzeb asked would the opposition want an NRO or would the Prime Minister and President — “who are absconders in NAB and ECP cases”. She also said: “Imran Sahib was challenged earlier to tell who has asked for an NRO from whom?”