PM Imran decides to clip NAB powers to save bureaucracy from harassment.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to clip Bureau's power to arrest any civil servant, serving or retired, in the garb of 'misuse of authority' or for any 'procedural lapse'.

Informed sources said the prime minister has directed the law ministry to prepare draft ordinance to amend the NAB law so that the bureaucracy could be saved from NAB's harassment. The prime minister asked the law minister to do the job at the earliest.

The prime minister gave this direction to the law ministry after he met the chief secretaries and federal secretaries who met the premier Tuesday to share their concerns vis-a-vis NAB.

Prime Minister's Adviser on Establishment Muhammad Shehzad Arbab, when contacted, said that he does not know whether the premier has directed the law ministry for the issuance of an ordinance to amend the NAB law but he confirmed that the prime minister did assure the secretaries that their concerns would be addressed shortly.

Arbab disclosed that a draft amendment to this respect is already ready and could be put before the cabinet meeting for the possible issuance of ordinance. Sources said that the prime minister assured the bureaucracy that the bureaucrats would be saved from NAB action for any of their decision taken in good faith. NAB could arrest the bureaucrats, serving or retired, only on the basis of incriminating evidence of corruption.

The NAB law, it is said, will be amended to bar the Bureau from proceeding against civil servants because of their decisions or owing to procedural lapses. In view of the unending excesses of NAB against bureaucracy and because of the continuing arrest of serving and retired officers in the absence of any incriminating evidence of corruption, the entire civil bureaucracy is very upset.

Reflecting the sentiments of the badly hounded civil service, the federal secretaries recently joined hands against NAB and decided to effectively plead their case before the government for an early resolution of the problem before the Bureau demolishes the administration completely. Prior to their meeting with the prime minister on Tuesday, a group of federal secretaries had recently met the Army Chief and shared their concerns about NAB and its working.

Last month, in the Secretaries Committee meeting, the federal secretaries formally dubbed the NAB operation against bureaucrats 'intolerable' and 'not acceptable', issued a serious warning for immediate amendments to NAB law before the Bureau...