President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday sent back National Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2023 to parliament for reconsideration after observing that the amendments brought earlier in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 were sub-judice before the Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the bill, dubbed “part two of NRO-2” by the opposition, had sailed through the Senate without being referred to the standing committee concerned. The bill, which had already been passed by the National Assembly, was moved in the Senate by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar amid a protest by senators belonging to the PTI. The legislation – proposed by the government in March – not only empowers the NAB chairman to transfer graft cases involving corruption of less than Rs500 million to the relevant agency, authority or department, but also closes pending inquiries and investigations where they think no case is made out. In a tweet on Sunday, the President’s Office said: “The president sent back the bill to Parliament under Article 75 (president’s assent to bills) of the Constitution.” Stating the reason for returning the bill, President Alvi said that previous amendments to the NAB law were already under hearing in the Supreme Court. “This aspect has not been addressed in the bill and the prime minister’s advice,” he said. The president asserted that further amendments to the country’s accountability laws “without reviewing the effects of a pending matter should be reviewed once again”. The National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2023 sought amendments to several sections of the NAB Ordinance, among which those to sections 4 and 6 stand out the most.
An amendment to section 4 of the NAB law states: “If the chairman is satisfied that no case is made out against an accused and the investigation may be closed, he shall refer the matter to the Court for approval and for the release of the accused, if in custody.
“Where the chairman is of the opinion that prima facie case is made out against an accused under any other law for the time being in force, he shall refer the matter to the relevant agency, authority or department, as the case may be,” it further states.
Under a provision added to Section 6 of the NAB Ordinance, as and when the office of the NAB chairman falls vacant or when the chairman is absent or unable to perform the functions of his office – due to any action whatsoever – the deputy chairman shall act as the NAB chairman and in absence of deputy chairman, the federal government shall appoint an acting chairman from amongst the senior officers of NAB.
The bill further says that due to the amendments made to the NAB law last year, “some legal complications have arisen for transfer of those cases from the accountability courts to other courts, tribunals, and forums which do not fall within the domain or jurisdiction of the NAB Ordinance”.
“On the initiative of the Prosecutor General Accountability and after having the input of relevant stakeholders, certain further amendments in the NAB Ordinance are required to be made urgently to provide legal cover to the accountability courts for transfer of aforesaid cases”, reads the statement of objects and reasons of the bill.
