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ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi has returned the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill and Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for reconsideration.
While returning to PM the NAB Amendment Bill the president observed that Article 46 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan had been violated as he was not informed about this legislative proposal before bringing the bill to the parliament.
Article 46 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan provides that “the Prime Minister shall keep the President informed……. on all legislative proposals the Federal Government intends to bring before Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)” President’s Secretariat Media Wing said in a press release on Saturday.
The president returned the bill to the prime minister for reconsideration and detailed deliberation by the parliament and its committee(s) in terms of Clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution.
The president further observed that the amendments had been passed by the National Assembly on 26th May 2022 and by the Senate on 27th May 2022 in haste and without due diligence.
He said the legislation has a far-reaching impact on society and should have been discussed in detail in consultation with the legal fraternity and civil society.
While dilating on the proposed amendments, the president said that by this amendment the burden of proof has been shifted to the persecution which has made NAB Law similar to (CrPC) 1898.
This, he said, would make it impossible for the prosecution to prove cases of corruption and misuse of official authority by the state persons and would bury the process of accountability in Pakistan.
He said that such amendment was also against the spirit of Islamic jurisprudence where Caliph Hazar Umar (RA) was questioned by an ordinary citizen to explain the extra cloth for his long cloak and against various accountability laws of developed countries such as Swiss Foreign Illicit Assets Act 2010 and Unexplained Wealth Order 2018 of UK in White-collar Crimes.
He emphasized the amendment would make the tracing money trail for the acquisition of illegal assets almost impossible especially when the records of the property/assets/wealth were neither digitized nor could be traced especially in Benami properties by the investigators.
He said that if the amendments were enacted as proposed, the ongoing mega corruption cases in the courts would be rendered infructuous, therefore, the proposed amendment should have strengthened the accountability mechanism to eliminate corruption and political engineering to ensure good governance in the country had been rendered a toothless entity.
The bill was returned in terms of Clause (1) (b) of Article 75 of the Constitution to the Prime Minister for reconsideration and detailed deliberation by the parliament and its committee (s).
The president said that overseas Pakistanis, who contributed their hard-earned wealth to the development and prosperity of their beloved country, had been deprived of the voting rights despite the fact that various commitments had been made to them by different prime ministers and presidents during their overseas trips since 1990’s.
The president observed that the Article 46 of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been violated as the President was not informed about this legislative proposal before bringing this Bill to the Parliament, President’s Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release on Saturday.
“Article 46 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan provides that “the Prime Minister shall keep the President informed……. on all legislative proposals the Federal Government intends to bring before Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament).”
The amendments had been passed by the National Assembly on 26th May, 2022 and by the Senate on 27th May, 2022.
The president said the legislation having far reaching impact on the society should have been discussed in details in consultation with the legal fraternity and civil society.
