ISLAMABAD, June 21(ABC): Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan Tuesday called for throwing incumbent rulers behind bars for “shamelessly” passing the amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws.
“They should be put in jail for their shamelessness. Nobody can pass such laws the way this government did,” the PTI chairman said while speaking during a press conference as he announced approaching the Supreme Court against the NAB amendments.
The government passed the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2022, in the National Assembly and the Senate last month, but President Arif Alvi returned the bill unsigned. Later, on June 9, the government passed the law in the joint sitting of the Parliament.
However, President Arif Alvi, a day earlier, rejected the bill amending the NAB Ordinance due to the “flaws in its implementation”. As a result, the bills will automatically become laws within 10 days.
Khan — explaining how the leaders of the two big political parties, PPP and PML-N would be “saved” after the changes — said the government amended section 14 of the law, which now states that a person will only be held accountable for the “money left in the fake accounts (when a person is arrested)”.
The PTI chairman said under the current tax laws, a person has to provide the trail of his money as the onus lies on them, not the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
But Khan said after the NAB law amendments, the watchdog will have to prove whether a person accumulated wealth illicitly — as the government has shifted the burden from the person to the watchdog.
The second change, Khan said was made to the “assets beyond means” — section 9 — of the NAB law, which will provide relief to “major government leaders”.
“If I am a public office holder earning an income of Rs50, then I will have to explain why I have assets worth Rs100 and where did I get the extra Rs50 from. But now, they have reversed the role and the NAB will have to explain how did a public office holder get extra assets,” he said.
Furthermore, he claimed that the amendments to section 21 have now made the information on foreign assets inadmissible — meaning that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz will get “clean chits” in Avenfield Fileds case.