PTI to move SC against NAB bill this week.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday his party would challenge new legislation seeking to clip the vast powers of the National AccountaAbility Bureau (NAB) in the Supreme Court this week.

Earlier this month, a joint session of parliament passed three bills, including those related to election reforms and the accountability law. According to the government, amendments to the NAB law were aimed at preventing the 'misuse of law for political engineering and victimisation of opponents'.

The changes were criticised by Mr Khan and his party, as he said the move would destroy the country by protecting white-collar criminals from accountability.

In a live video broadcast on Tuesday, the former prime minister described the amendments as a 'bigger crime than dropping a bomb on the country' and said those behind the move should be thrown into jail 'due to their shamelessness'.

He said the assembly session where the amendment bill was passed was a 'mockery and a joke with the country'.

NAB's autonomy had been reduced drastically, as it would not be able to investigate money-laundering cases under the new law,' he said.

Hoping that the courts would take notice of the development, he said such moves would be detrimental to the country if not prevented. He said laws formulated in the country should not be specific to any specific person but instead apply to the collective whole.

Tackling the major amendments one by one, the PTI chief explained how they would be used to allegedly eliminate several cases against leaders of the coalition government.

Mr Khan claimed that he was pressured throughout his tenure as prime minister and blackmailed to provide a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)-type deal to major political figures of the present coalition government, but he did not give in.

'It should be clear now their return [to power] was not to reduce inflation,' he said, adding that if the present government remained in power, the country would be on its way to a situation similar to the one in Sri Lanka.

Passing and implementing the NAB amendment law was tantamount to giving a licence to commit corruption, as the powerful people would not fear punishment now, he said.

He went on to say that PML-N leaders Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, and PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari would be the major beneficiaries of these changes. Mr Khan insisted that countries with discriminatory laws for the poor and the rich faced...