Daily Times

The opposition parties on Saturday slammed the government over the newly introduced National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance, 2019, saying it will only benefit Prime Minister Imran Khan and his aides.

“The prime minister has given good news to his friends thorough the ordinance that they won’t be troubled anymore by NAB,” said Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) senior leader Akram Durrani. He said Imran Khan has saved his aides and himself through the ordinance. “We don’t want friction between the country’s institutions. NAB chairman should inform us whether there is a stay order on Malam Jabba and the Billion Tree Tsunami?” he questioned, and demanded that action must be taken against any malpractices in the above-mentioned projects.

Sindh Minister for Information and Labour Saeed Ghani agreed with Durrani that the ordinance has benefited PM Imran’s aides. “Laws that affect the common man should have been amended, unfortunately, that did not happen,” he said.

He said the government by bringing an ordinance to amend NAB laws has made an effort to protect a few of its cronies. He said NAB is a ‘black law’ and people are committing suicide because of it.

Saeed Ghani said the PTI government has removed over 0.8 million people from the BISP just to adjust its own workers. He said the people who were removed from the BISP were not PPP workers or supporters, rather they were the poor people of Pakistan.

Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians Secretary Information Dr Nafisa Shah said the prime minister has tried to help his ‘friends’ by bringing an ordinance to amend NAB laws. She said such an ordinance, which is related to a change in NAB laws, should have been discussed and agreed upon by all the parties in the parliament. She said the supposed accountability is not inclusive at all, and that only politicians are being targeted while the businessmen are being provided with relief due to their connections with the current PTI government. She said the effort to bring a change in NAB laws is a scandal bigger than that of the Panama Leaks.

Expressing doubt over the prime minister ability to run the government affairs, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq said the options of early elections or in-house change can be adopted to put the country on the right track. “Pakistan is faced with a plethora of crises from the day the PTI has taken control of the government. The country cannot afford further adventurism,” he said.

However, Prime Minister’s Spokesman Nadeem Afzal Chan has said that the government wants reforms in NAB by evolving consensus with opposition parties in the parliament.

Talking to a private news channel, he said the opposition parties were not showing seriousness in NAB reforms through legislation and wished to halt the accountability process against their bigwigs. He, however, said the PTI government is determined to wipe out the menace of corruption from the country.