Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Enumerating the significance of the endorsement of two legislations recently by the provincial assembly, the Adviser to the Chief Minister on Information and Higher Education, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, has claimed that the incumbent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had made record legislations, saying that more than 100 new laws had so far been passed by the provincial assembly.

Addressing a news conference at the press club here on Tuesday, he highlighted the importance of the passage of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Whistleblower Protection and Vigilance Commission Bill 2016, and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans Bill 2016.

He termed the legislations as a step towards curbing the corruption in government departments and eliminating interest on private loans respectively. He said both the bills had direct relations with the poor masses, therefore, he described them as major legislations.

The Adviser to the Chief Minister said both the laws would be implemented across the province, which aimed to complete eradicate corruption, especially to ensure protection of those people, who were identifying corruption in various government departments, while the other bill, aimed to abolishing private money lending. He maintained that the KP Whistleblower Bill would enable the citizens to make public interest disclosures relating to the irregular, illegal or corrupt practices, and protect them from disadvantageous measures and give them rewards for the same.

“A vigilance commission, comprising the chairman along with its three members, will be constituted”, Mr Ghani said. He added that upon receipt of the public interest disclosure and after concealing the identity of the whistleblower, the commission would make a preliminary inquiry within a period of 30 days in such a manner as may be prescribed to ascertain whether there was any basis for proceeding further.

According to the bill, the Adviser to the Chief Minister said that the whistle blower would be paid 30 per cent of the recovered amount as a reward for pointing out corruption in his department. However, he said if the charges were proved false, the accuser would be fined and could face three years imprisonment. A commissioner would also be appointed under the bill, he maintained.

Similarly, he said the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans bill, was aimed at eliminating interest on private loans and states that no money lender, either individually or in group of persons, shall lend money for cars or any other purpose, or advance loan to any person for receiving interest, or carry on an interest-based transaction in the province. The bill prescribes Rs 1 million fine with a maximum prison term of 10 years for persons lending money on interest or interest-based transactions.

The same punishment and fine will be awarded to people abetting, engaging or aiding a money lender in the recovery of interest or interest-based transactions. The bill fixed a Rs 500,000 fine and imprisonment of up to five years for people involved in molesting borrowers or debtors.

According to the bill’s preamble, the injunction of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah explicitly and unequivocally prohibited charging interest on loans and declared war against those, who do not abandon interest.