The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been empowered to keep an accused on physical remand for up to 40 days as Acting President Yousuf Raza Gilani approved an ordinance to amend the existing law.
Before the ordinance, a person arrested by the NAB could be remanded into the bureau’s custody for 14 days. However, under the amended law, the duration of physical remand has been increased to 40 days.
Furthermore, the punishment for NAB officials for making false cases has been reduced from 5 years to 2 years. The ordinance was passed amidst a hearing of the NAB amendments case by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, challenged by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan.
The previous Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government approved amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in a bid to curtail the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, who tabled the bill in lower house of parliament, said that multiple amendments were made in the accountability Ordinance to clip the powers exercised by the accountability bureau.
Sharing details of the key amendments, he said that after fresh amendments, no arrests could be made before completion of the investigation process, and the suspect will have the right to obtain bail while 90-day remand is also abolished. “90-day remand is for terrorists and we have now reduced the duration of remand to 14 days,” he said and added that no defamation campaign could be carried out unless the suspect is convicted in the case. The case could not be used for political purposes in the assets beyond means case, he said.
Meanwhile, the acting president also approved an ordinance to amend the Election Act 2023. As per the amendments, retired judges could also be appointed to the election tribunals, in addition to serving high court judges.
