Qureshi says govt willing to accept 'valid recommendations'

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday stated that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led (PTI) government is open to accepting the opposition's "valid recommendations" regarding the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance.

The minister made the remarks during an appearance on Geo Pakistan programme. He was asked about the government’s need for opposition's support to pass the recently signed ordinance in Parliament.

“Ordinance has its own duration and then its needs to be legislated. During law making, treasury and opposition’s input comes in,” said Qureshi. He asked the opposition to bring forward any “solid recommendations” it has over the NAB laws.

Qureshi said that the government brought the ordinance due to the long-standing debate regarding the amendments [the NAB law needed].

“I remember that in the last government, when we were in the opposition, PML-N formed a committee for amending the ordinance. The committee did a lot of work but it could not be completed,” shared the foreign minister.

Also read: Bilawal wants 'farcical' NAB abolished as govt defends newly passed ordinance

Qureshi said that the “general opinion” in the committee — which also had members from Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and other parties — was that the “ordinance required changes and has some shortcomings”.

“The members of the time viewed some of [the] clauses in the ordinance as draconian,” he said.

Expensive defense lawyers and weak prosecution behind NAB's failure

The foreign minister also commented on the NAB's difficulties in finding evidence against those it accuses of corruption, saying that top-notch defence and weak prosecution was to blame for that.

“In a lot of cases, evidence's collection and the prosecution’s arguments were seen as weak, and a lot of people took advantage of this,” highlighted Qureshi.

Also read: NAB's job is to catch corruption, not fix institutions: Shahzad Akbar

“The defence has highly paid lawyers and if on the other end there are ill-prepared people, then the advantage of this goes to those people who have harmed the national treasury,” said the minister.

Qureshi also said that the opposition’s allegation of NAB being used for revenge was “incorrect”, emphasising that “NAB can do whatever it wants” and is an independent organisation.

'NAB's foundation based on revenge'

Later on the same show, PML-N's lawmaker Javed Latif alleged that NAB’s foundations were based on revenge.

“When NAB’s foundations are based on revenge, and its aim is to harm the opponents then you cannot expect anything good from it,” stated Latif.

The PML-N leader also claimed that the government signed the ordinance when the bureau was about to investigate them.

“We think when institutions of accountability are already working then there is no need for an institution like NAB,” said Latif.

The PML-N leader was also asked if the opposition was satisfied with the government’s efforts to amend the accountability laws.

Latif stated that the opposition did not see the government as “trustworthy”. He alleged that the only objection the government has to the NAB laws is that the opposition “should be punished according to their wishes”.

Calls for a single accountability institution

Both the leaders were also asked about Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry’s call for a single accountability institution.

Foreign Minister Qureshi disagreed with his colleague and said that the two entities should keep on operating separately.

“It is the time of specialisation and I believe all expertise should not be in one place, and therefore, different institutions should be used for different investigations,” said Qureshi.