Courts to examine 'good faith' behind an action.

ISLAMABAD -- Amid growing criticism of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government over amendments to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws through a controversial ordinance, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar on Sunday announced that the new ordinance would be presented before parliament.

The new ordinance [The National AccountAability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019] would be presented before the parliament so that any further improvement required in the new law could be brought through the assembly, said Mr Akbar while addressing a press conference along with Minister for Communications Murad Saeed.

The PM's aide said the opposition misinterpreted the new ordinance, believing that NAB powers had been clipped just to give benefit to PTI leaders. The major reason to amend NAB laws was to give protection and a sense of security to the bureaucrats who were reluctant to sign even a single file, bringing the government machinery to a standstill, he later told reporters during an informal talk.

PM aide says NAB ordinance to be placed before parliament

It was quite important to change the existing laws so that no one was wrongly made to suffer for the crime he had not committed, he explained. 'We do not want to implicate anyone [public office holder] in any case if he had done anything in 'good faith',' he said. However, he added, courts would decide 'who will get the benefit of doing anything in good faith as mentioned in the new ordinance'.

'A clause has been added to the new ordinance to ascertain that when a person - a public office holder or a minister or a businessman - uses his authority and is charged with having misused it, it will be examined whether there is personal monetary benefit attached to their decision. If such an advantage is proved then will it be considered corruption,' he added.

Mr Akbar expressed the hope that the opposition, which was criticising the government over the new ordinance, would not oppose it in parliament. He claimed that amendments to the NAB law would not only benefit the bureaucrats but also businessmen and legislators.

However, federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry was of the opinion that NAB and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) should be merged. 'In developed countries, only one such premier anti-corruption body exists,' he said. The minister said the parliament should decide the merger of the FIA and NAB.

Firdous Ashiq Awan, the...