ISLAMABAD – Federal government mulls over amending the law to limit NAB toprobing the corruption matters related to public office holders only andthe phrase ‘any person’ will be deleted from the relevant law. Currently,NAB can proceed against any person who lives beyond his means.
A proposal is also under consideration regarding restricting NAB frominterfering in matters which are under the jurisdiction of anti-corruptiondepartments and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) etc. The government,according to sources, also wants to define phrase ‘mega corruption’ in theaccountability laws.
The sources said that it was for sharing the proposed amendments with NABChairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal that Attorney General for Pakistan(AGP) Ashtar Ausaf Ali met him at his office on Wednesday. The lawsecretary and the NAB prosecutor general were also present during themeeting which lasted for two hours.
Later, the NAB chairman and the prosecutor general also held a meeting forhalf an hour.
The NAB chairman told the media after the meeting that it was just acourtesy call and there was no agenda of the meeting.
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss proposed amendments to NAB laws.They said matters related to international arbitration were also discussedin the meeting.
Political analysts are giving much importance to this meeting of the toplegal minds of the government with the NAB chairman, who is giving a toughtime to ruling party members in high profile cases, especially related tothe Punjab government.
Legal experts are already debating whether there is need to bring in a newlegislation to improve the conviction rate in white-collar crimes in thecountry. They are examining whether the standard of proof for corruptionand corrupt practices should be ‘balance of probabilities’, which allowsinference from circumstantial evidence, or ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
The debate is being held in view of the claims made by major politicalparties that white-collar crime is the biggest hurdle in the development ofthe country.
A former NAB official, who recently left a senior position at the bureau,said: “It is so difficult to convict anyone in a white-collar crime casethat there is a need to bring in new legislation for this purpose.”