ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Justice Ijazul Ahsan on Tuesday said that the amendments made to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws were carried out only to benefit the very lawmakers that legislated on it, while Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial remarked that as long as flaws in the system remained, corruption couldn’t be eradicated.
The remarks came during the hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan challenging amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance. A three judge-bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ahsan, and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah heard the petition today.
The National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act 2022 was approved by the current PDM administration after taking office in April. PTI sharply criticized this decision, calling it an attempt to make the anti-graft watchdog “ineffective” organization.
Former prime minister Imran Khan contested the NAB law changes in June. The modifications will “essentially eradicate any white-collar crime committed by a public official holder,” according to the petition.
At the onset of the hearing, CJP Bandial said the amendments to the NAB bill were made by an “incomplete” National Assembly (NA). However, he said that there was no law on whether or not an incomplete assembly can legislate.
“More than half of the MNAs had boycotted the assembly as part of a political strategy,” the chief justice recalled.
If the executives fail to perform their duties, according to Advocate Khawaja Harris, the lawyer for PTI’s chairman, they will go before the court.
Justice Ahsan made a comment about the NAB bill amendments as the hearing went on, saying that they primarily benefited the legislators.
He said, “A whole political party runs on the orders of a handful of people. Following the instructions is only advantageous to them.”
“In such a situation, should the judiciary watch the spectacle unfold with its hands and feet tied?” the judge asked.
Justice Ahsan said that the NAB amendment bill was rushed through without holding a debate. “If the intention behind the amendment is not right, there is no need to find out anything else.”
CJP Bandial said no attempts were made to fix loopholes in the system. “It is the parliament’s job to legislate and implement laws that fix the system’s loopholes,” he said, adding that the law was not being followed during the executives’ decision-making.
He said the government could not root out corruption in some projects due to the system’s weakness.
“Many people’s businesses were shut down due to misuse of the NAB law,” the chief justice said. “There should be no forgiveness for corruption.”
At one point in the hearing, Justice Shah said “corruption is wrong and there is no doubt that corruption should not take place”. “The question is how corruption should be dealt with?” he said.
To this, Advocate Harris replied: “Bringing an end to corruption is the executives’ job. The judiciary interferes when the executives can’t do their job.”
Ex-PM Imran’s lawyer told the court that the term “regulatory capture” is used when self-serving legislation is passed.
Here, CJP Bandial inquired if the amendments to the NAB law can be termed as “parliamentary capture.”
Advocate Harris told the judge that the term “parliamentary capture” is used in another sense.
Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till Wednesday (December 14).
