Imran Khan announces to approach Supreme Court against NAB amendments in the ongoing week
ISLAMABAD, June 21 (SABAH): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday called for putting incumbent rulers behind bars for “shamelessly” passing the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws.
“They should be put in jail for their shamelessness. Nobody can pass such laws shamelessly — as this government did,” the PTI chairman told a press conference as he announced approaching the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the NAB amendments in the ongoing week.
The government passed the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2022, in the National Assembly and the Senate last month, but President Dr. Arif Alvi returned the bill unsigned. Later, on June 9, the government passed the law in the joint sitting of the parliament.
However, President Dr. Arif Alvi a day earlier rejected the bill amending the NAB Ordinance due to the “flaws in its implementation”. As a result, the bills will automatically become laws within 10 days.
Imran Khan — explaining how the leaders of the two big political parties, PPP and PML-N would be “saved” after the changes — said the government amended section 14 of the law, which now states that a person will only be held accountable for the “money left in the fake accounts (when a person is arrested)”.
The PTI chairman said under the current tax laws, a person has to provide the trail of his money as the onus lies on them, not the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
But Imran Khan said after the NAB law amendments, the watchdog will have to prove whether a person accumulated wealth illicitly — as the government has shifted the burden from the person to the watchdog.
The second change, Imran Khan said was made to the assets beyond means — section 9 — of the NAB law, which will provide relief to “major government leaders”.
“If I am a public office holder earning an income of Rs50, then I will have to explain why I have assets worth Rs100 and where did I get the extra Rs50 from. But now, they have reversed the role and the NAB will have to explain how did a public office holder get extra assets,” he said.
Furthermore, he claimed that the amendments to section 21 have now made the information on foreign assets inadmissible — meaning that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz will get “clean chits” in Avenfield Fileds case.
He added that the government has now removed the investigation of money laundering cases from NAB’s ambit and has given them solely to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
“The FIA is already under the Interior Ministry’s control. How can we imagine that Rana Sanaullah will launch cases against Nawaz Sharif or Asif Zardari,” the PTI chairman added.
The PTI chairman said that the government has also allowed people to “make money” through the Benami accounts as they will not be held accountable for the money they make in the name of their families.
“Amendments made to these laws are worse than dropping a bomb on the country,” Khan said.
At the outset of his address, the former prime minister said Pakistan cannot progress with corruption as justice is the key to a country’s development. “Pakistan is a blessed country, but we have not reached our potential,” the ousted prime minister said.
He quoted Minister for Energy Khurram Dastagir Khan as saying that the coalition government wanted Khan out of power as he was about to put the current rulers behind bars by hiring more NAB judges.
Last week, during an interview with a private channel, Dastagir had admitted that the coalition government leaders knew that there would be disqualifications on a massive level by the end of this year if things continued in line with Khan’s plans.
Imran Khan said the then-opposition constantly “blackmailed” him into giving them an NRO and they were against passing legislation to meet the demands of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). “They walked out of the session for the passage of the bills after I declined to give them an NRO,” he said.
Imran Khan said that he will not keep mum on the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) amendments and will consult every constitutional and law forum.
Imran Khan said that he knew that the current rulers will protect themselves after coming into power. “They are trying to end their cases in the guise of reforms,” he said. He said that he started movement against corruption 26 years ago and the corruption prevails when there is lack of justice.
The PTI chairman said the country’s development comes with the rule of law and rule of law means no one is above the law.
The former PM went on to say that there is no lack of resources in the country but the lack of justice, adding that the country cannot progress without bringing the corrupt under the law.
In response, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif termed the PTI chairman a “fitna (evil)” who “blackmailed” a woman named Tayyaba and acquired “videos” of the NAB chairman so he could control him.
“Fitna Khan kept Tayyaba at the PM Office for two weeks, extracted NAB chairman’s videos from her and through that, he blackmailed the NAB chairman for making a decision according to his will,” she said in a tweet. “There should be strict action against [Khan] for using NAB to target his political opponents,” she added.