Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A special legislative body of the upper house of the parliament on Tuesday sought more time for deliberations on changes to the laws governing the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

There is a view that the work of the both investigation agencies of the federal government overlaps. The issue was discussed at a meeting of the Special Oversight Committee formed by the House to monitor implementation of the recommendations adopted by the House on October 6, 2015 against “corruption in the federal government departments”. Senator Javed Abbasi chaired the meeting.

Additional draftsman of the Ministry of Law told the committee that according to the rules the parliament had the right to review the 1974 FIA laws and 1999 NAB laws. He said that a meeting was held at the Ministry of Law on changes to the FIA and NAB laws. He said that both federal agencies told the meeting that they were working smoothly under the current laws and that there duties did not overlap. “The FIA was of the view that it would become a toothless organisation if anti-corruption powers are withdrawn from it. It will not be able to take action against corruption in several cases,” he said.

The Ministry of Law was the administrative authority of the NAB and the FIA was working under the Interior Ministry. It was easy for the Law Ministry to make changes to the NAB law, but it could not make changes to the FIA law, the draftsman said.

Senator Farooq Hamid Naek said that there was a need to repeal the FIA and NAB laws, make a comprehensive law and apply it to every agency. The Establishment secretary was of the view that there should be a single law for both FIA and NAB. He said that review of any law required thorough discussions.

“In this case, we have to take powers from one agency and give them to the other,” the senator said. He said the Oversight Committee could not change any law; therefore, it would be better to send it back to Senate. He described it as a serious matter, which required thorough discussions.

Abbasi decided to send the matter back to the Senate, saying that Senate should either form a special committee to review the NAB and FIA laws or give powers to the Senate Standing Committee on Law to review the laws. The committee would hold another meeting on May 11 and discuss the matter in detail with inputs from both NAB and FIA.

Establishment Secretary Syed Tahir Shahbaz briefed the committee about the laws enacted for eradication of corruption in federal government departments. He said that a governance reform unit was established at the Planning Commission, which was headed by Ahsan Iqbal, federal minister for planning, development and reform. The unit has already submitted a report to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said the government had made new rules to reform the system governing induction of government servants. The conduct rules were also being reviewed and the review would be completed by June this year. The secretary said that a vigilance committee had also been formed.

The climate change secretary briefed the committee about the steps taken by the government to control corruption. He said the ministry followed the right to information policy and placed all its reports on its website.