ISLAMABAD: On Monday, the proposal of life imprisonment for those to be convicted under charges of white collar crimes was rejected by the Parliamentary Committee on the National Accountability Law.
Law Minister Zahid Hamid presided over the Ninth meeting of the committee. The chairmen, Zahid Hamid, discussed a draft bill called National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2017, presented by MNA Aliya Kamran, along with other agenda of the meeting.
The bill tabled by Ms Aliya demanded life imprisonment for persons that have been convicted in corruption cases instead of short term prison sentences of 7 to 14 years jail.
According to Shah Mehmood Qureshi – a member of the committee – “the majority of the committee’s members were of the view that life imprisonment will be unjustified with those to be caught in corruption cases.”
“It was a general view of the committee that one should not be given any concession in corruption cases but on the other hand the law should not be a draconian one,” Mr Qureshi said.
Some of the members quoted, during the meeting, relevant judgments of the Supreme Court which were pertinent to the proposed bill.
Decisions made in the 7th meeting of the committee were also approved, which included sections number 19, 20, and 21 of accountability law. These sections were related to punishment for corruption, disqualification, voluntary return (VR) and cognisable offences of the accountability bill.
A consensus on the punishment for corruption cases was also reached, i.e. minimum punishment of seven years and maximum punishment would be 14 years, but not life imprisonment.
It was also decided that any person found involved in corrupt practices would be banned for lifetime from holding any public office even if he/she has returned embezzled amount through voluntary return or plea bargain.
The meeting also discussed ways by which army generals and judges could be brought under the ambit of the proposed law aimed at replacing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with the National Accountability Commission (NAC).
The existing National Accountability Ordinance, promulgated by military dictator retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in 1999, brought public officeholders, civil servants, politicians and even civilians under the law but exempted the personnel of armed forces as well as judges of superior courts.
“The issue of bringing generals and judges under accountability laws will be discussed thoroughly in the coming meetings,” Mr Qureshi said.
Presently judges and army generals do not come under the ambit of NAB and other civilian anti-corruption bodies. Both of these organizations are considered to have their own accountability systems and believe in self accountability.
