ISLAMABAD: Under the newly amended accountability laws, courts have started referring corruption references below Rs 50 crore to the anti-corruption watchdog, but its new chief apparently has no intention of referring them to the relevant forum for action.
According to media reports, corruption cases like Ramzan Sugar Mills have been virtually closed, at least for now.
Federal government sources revealed that almost all such references were against people belonging to the current coalition government led by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
A former Prosecutor General believes that sending cases back to the National Accountability Bureau does not mean that ‘no crime was committed’ and the fact that there were dozens of such cases cannot be ignored.
The accountability courts referred to the recently amended legislation and directed it to be placed before a court of competent jurisdiction against Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shahbaz (Ramadan Sugar Mills) and former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani. (USF) and Raja Pervez Ashraf (Rental Power Projects) have sent several references back to NAB Chairman.
Sources in the federal government said that it is unlikely that the new head of NAB, who was appointed by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his elected opposition leader in the National Assembly, Raja Riaz, will refer these corruption cases to other forums like the Anti-Corruption Establishment. Will send to
He said that apparently these corruption references have been closed because NAB is not showing any haste to send them to the relevant legal forums for action and almost all such references were against people who are related to the current coalition government.
When NAB spokesperson Nadeem Khan was contacted, he said that all such cases will be decided according to law.
Earlier, former NAB Punjab director Farooq Hameed told Dawn that it would have been better for the government to shut down the bureau instead of enacting such legislation to disable it.
He said, “Accountability of the corrupt elite is now impossible. Why should the government allocate billions of rupees in the budget for NAB when it has made changes to ensure that billions of rupees looted by the corrupt are not returned?” Can be’.
Former Prosecutor General of NAB Punjab Chaudhry Khaliqul Zaman said that although the references in which corruption of less than Rs 50 crore was committed were returned to NAB, it does not mean that the crime was not committed.
He said that the accountability courts have asked the chairman NAB to send these references to the relevant forum and that one can either be the special court of ACE, FIA, Central or in some such cases this forum can be the session court. May be.
Khaliqul Zaman said that the fact that the number of such cases is in dozens cannot be ignored.
According to a former NAB prosecutor, the most obvious change in the NAB rules is that the burden of proof has shifted to the person who reports alleged corruption to the bureau, showing that a suspect has committed a crime. He can also easily escape with his accumulated wealth.
An official associated with the Punjab Youth Festival reference sent back to NAB told Dawn that an important aspect was the misuse of powers and abuse of law by the ‘NAB’ itself before the recent amendments in the NAB rules.
Citing an observation of a high court, he said that it is clear from the dictionary that the words ‘corruption’ and ‘corrupt conduct’ are distinct from ‘negligence’ or even ‘negligence’.
He further said that mere illegality, negligence or carelessness does not constitute corruption without a guilty mind. Before proceeding further it would be appropriate to review the previous law.
On the other hand, the ruling coalition parties Muslim League (N) and Pakistan People’s Party claim that all such references were made on ‘political grounds’.
