Daily Times

After returning an unsigned bill a day earlier seeking to reverse the changes made to the election laws by the former PTI government, President Arif Alvi Monday did the same to a bill amending the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance due to the ‘flaws in its implementation’.

A statement released on the official Twitter handle of the president said, the bill took inspiration from ‘Hazrat Umar’s incident’ when asked about the source of extra cloth in his cloak.

“The onus in financial crimes is on the accused to provide a money trail. Unfortunately, there were flaws in NAB’s implementation. It was misused for political exigencies by those in power [and] by vested interests,” the president said.

He also reiterated that the public clamored for the return of the nation’s looted wealth, but long judicial processes and poor prosecution failed most efforts.

“Instead of improving the law to avoid miscarriage, to close loopholes [and] make it stronger, we are weakening it beyond recognition,” the statement read.

According to the president, the proposed changes will “demolish accountability”, creating a “façade of justice” that blatantly hides a corrupt elite capture ensuring the exploitation of the common man in an unjust society, says a news report. The president said the poor will continue to be jailed for petty crimes, while the corrupt rich will be free to loot and plunder. He said: “I personally abide by the Constitution; we must act upon injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah, and above all, I am answerable to Allah asking for His forgiveness.

“Therefore, with deep discomfort and pain, I state that my conscience does not allow me to sign this Bill.”

Dr Alvi said he believed the bill to be “regressive in nature”, adding that it would “promote corruption by ensuring that the long arm of the law is crippled”. The president said the bill also sent a message to the corrupt, who he claimed had amassed tremendous wealth, that they were not accountable and were free to continue to plunder the country.

“The president lamented that the small man will be caught for petty crimes while the corrupt rich will remain free to continue with their blood-sucking abhorrent practices. Having weak accountability is against the basic rights of the people of Pakistan […] it is also against the fundamentals of our Constitution,” the statement quoted the president as saying.

The president said that he was aware of the fact that the NAB bill would be enacted into law even if he did not sign the bill. Elaborating on the reasons behind not signing the bill, President Alvi said it had been observed that there were flaws in the implementation of the NAB Ordinance.

“This law, like all other laws vesting authority in the executive, was abused for political exigencies by those in power. Because of this reason, along with the role of vested interests, the accountability process in Pakistan became quite ineffective. While the public clamoured for the return of looted wealth, the long judicial processes involved and ineffective prosecution actually made it very difficult to expose, prevent and eliminate corruption,” the president said.

He went on to say that a strong effort for improvement was desperately needed.

“Our experiences of the last few decades should have guided us; to modify the law, avoid its miscarriage, close the glaring loopholes and make it stronger. What was least expected was that the efforts of some previous governments were dumped and the principle of accountability, though upheld, was weakened beyond recognition,” he said. President Alvi said that rather than structurally improving the institution, the enactment of the amendments promulgated was akin to “demolishing the process of accountability without an alternate system being in place”.

“Weak laws, such as this one, create a facade of justice that blatantly hides a corrupt elite capture, and nations that accommodate such laws ensure very damaging exploitation of the common man perpetuating an unjust society,” he stated, adding that his conscience did not allow him to sign the bill.