Govt finalises NAB Amendment Bill

ISLAMABAD: The incumbent government has finalised the draft of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) bill, ARY News reported.

According to the new amendment bill, now the big corrupts will be freed from the clutches of the graft-buster body.

Corruption of more than Rs50 crore will come under the jurisdiction of NAB and a case will be filed in the court of the area where the person committed the crime, the proposed recommendations in the NAB amendment bill say.

The draft states that if a person makes a plea bargain, it will not affect other persons in the same case whereas the Chairman NAB can dismiss any case in any court in whole or in part.

After the amendment, the cases of former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Zardari, his sister, Sindh Assembly MPA, Faryal Talpur and Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah will be transferred to Sindh.

The draft amendments have been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Legislation that will be presented for approval at the next cabinet meeting.

On June 21, the president refused to sign the bills and returned them back to the Parliament. The gazette notification has made the NAB amendment bills into law.

The National Assembly had passed bills to abolish the PTI government’s election reforms giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote through i-Voting and electronic voting machines (EVMs), as well as the NAB laws.

After the president’s refusal to sign the bills, the joint session of the Parliament had passed the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill 2021 and Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022.