ISLAMABAD -  Sindh government has asked the National Accountability Bureau to transfer pending complaints, inquiries and investigations related to provincial departments and office holders to Anti-Corruption Establishment Sindh after repealing the “ National Accountability Ordinance, 1999” in province.

Several cases of leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are under investigation in the NAB.  According to the available documents with The Nation, Sindh government has written a letter to the NAB on August 10th, that states, “provincial assembly has passed the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 Sindh Government Repeal Act, 2017, which has become law with effect from 9th August 2017 as per provision of Article 116 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”

It further states, “under Section 2 of the above Repeal Act, all complaints, inquiries and investigations with regard to provincial departments and provincial office holders relating to the province of Sindh are to be transferred to the Anti-Corruption Establishment Sindh.”

The letter said, it is therefore requested to kindly transfer all such pending complaints, inquiries and investigations to the Anti-Corruption Establishment as per provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 Sindh Repeal Act, 2017.  First, the provincial assembly passed the bill on July 3rd last but the Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair had rejected and sent it back to provincial assembly with objections under the articles 142 and 143 of Constitution of Pakistan.

The provincial cabinet discussed the governor’s objections on the bill and approved a new draft.  The Sindh Assembly passed the new draft on July 27th, 2017.

According to the Chapter 1 of the Constitution of Pakistan that describes relation between federation and provinces, “if any provision of an act of a provincial assembly is repugnant to any provision of an act of Majlis-e-Shoora [Parliament] is competent to enact, then the act of Majlis-e-Shoora [Parliament], whether passed before or after the act of the provincial assembly, shall prevail and the act of the provincial assembly shall, to the extent of the repugnancy, be void.”

According to the documents, Secretary Sindh Assembly wrote a letter to the Superintendent Sindh Government Printing Press Karachi, and said, “the National Accountability Ordinance 199 Sindh Repeal Act, 2017 for printing in the Sindh Government (extraordinary) Gazette dated August 9th, 2017 and supply 300 copies to this Secretariat. Before final printing, first proof may be sent to this Secretariat.”

Talking to The Nation, a senior officer of the bureau said that the NAB would decide to transfer the cases of Sindh to provincial anti-corruption unit after the completion of consultation of bureau and the Ministry of Law over the issue.  He said that the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had allowed the NAB to work in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in its own capacity after the establishment of KP Ehtesab Commission.

The officer said that the NAB had powers to take action against corrupt federal, provincial government officials, private persons including businessmen.  A senior official of the Sindh government said, the provincial government had conveyed to all provincial departments through a letter not to obey the orders of the NAB further after the establishment of the provincial anti-corruption body.

According to media reports, Advocate Nasir Ahmad has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against repealing of the NAB Ordinance 1999, in Sindh.