ISLAMABAD, OCT 08 (DNA) – Categorically rejecting the NAB (Amendment) Ordinance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an opposition parties’ alliance, on Friday alleged the ordinance was an attempt to protect federal ministers tainted with corruption from accountability.
Reacting to the ordinance promulgated just a few days back and under which extension was granted to NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, Hafiz Hamdullah, spokesman for the PDM, commented, “It was an ‘NRO’ by the government to the government.”
The ordinance, Hamdullah added, would protect the ministers whose names were doing rounds on media in connection with sugar, wheat, drugs, petrol, Ring Road, Malam Jabba, BRT and million trees projects scams. “Through the ordinance, the ‘selected’ Prime Minister Imran Khan has exempted his cabinet made up of ‘imported’ ministers from accountability,” PDM spokesman alleged.
“PDM categorically rejects the NAB Amendment Ordinance,” Hamdullah said, adding the ordinance could be of benefit to those living in Bani Gala and those close to the hearts of the ‘selected’ prime minister, but not to the country and its institutions.
The spokesman said that after constantly denying ‘NRO’ to the opposition parties for the last three years, the government had finally ended up giving NRO to its own ministers.
Meanwhile, calling National Accountability Bureau (Amendment) Ordinance an ‘attack’ on the parliament and judiciary, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said the ordinance was the manifestation of the government’s non-constitutional and non-democratic attitude.
He said by promulgating the ordinance, the government had sought to save its own skin while at the same time it snatched the independence granted to state institutions by the constitution. He said new taxes worth Rs225 billion would unleash a tsunami of inflation on the common people. He held that the cotton exporters and millers were in distress these days.
Shehbaz regretted that instead of providing relief to the inflation-hit people, the government drops a bombshell on them by increasing prices of essential items every other day. “Those succumbing to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) ‘impractical’ conditions, are forcing the nation to commit suicide,” leader of the opposition opined.
“The very fact that the government has introduced some amendments to the NAB ordinance shows it does not trust parliament,” he said, adding that the ordinance was a step towards eliminating whatever democracy was left there in the country and introducing ‘dictatorship’ in its place.
Shehbaz vowed not to allow the government to snatch powers of the state institutions as laid down in the constitution. Meanwhile, PML-N leader Ata Tarar while commenting on the NAB Amendment Ordinance has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has given NRO to himself as well as his ministers. = DNA
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