ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday refused to patch up with those who had looted and plundered the public money.

“Don’t ask me to talk to those people. I have no personal enmity with anyone. Should I give up on those who had robbed our home,” Imran Khan said while addressing the AJK Legislative Assembly’s special session in Muzafarabad.

Prime Minister Khan’s remarks were in response to AJK Premier Raja Farooq Haider’s suggestion seeking to evolve a national consensus by taking other major political parties on board.    

Prime Minister Khan’s statement also comes following indifferent positions being taken by major opposition parties on government plans seeking to amend the country’s anti-graft laws that provided massive powers to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Opposition parties in the parliament instead of making a consensual amendments proposal have prepared different proposals seeking changes in the NAB laws to include the ongoing corruption cases their leaders are facing, concessions the ruling party seems reluctant to give.

On its part, the PTI-led coalition government last week had introduced the ‘NAB Accountability Ordinance (Second Amendment), 2019’ despite hue and cry from the opposition in the National Assembly.

The National Accountability Ordinance, 2019 reads that under the existing regime, a number of inquiries have been initiated against the holders of public offices and government servants on account of procedural lapses, where no actual corruption is involved.

It further states that NAB, while assuming parallel jurisdiction, is also inquiring into the matters pertaining to taxation and imposition of levies.

“It is, therefore, imperative to define the operational domain of NAB though the amendments.”

Sources in major opposition parties believe that the government seems least interested to bring about amendments with consensus of the political parties in the parliament, rather it is trying to amend the NAB laws unilaterally. Political analysts while commenting on Prime Minister Khan’s refusal to patch up with corrupt politicians said that the prime minister has reflected his mindset not to budge from the principled position of his ruling party about corruption.

They did not see a promising prospect for reconciliation between the government and the major opposition parties over redefining the role and scope of NAB in the near future.

Rather, they predicted deeper political polarisation in the country for divergent agendas of all the political parties including PTI and its coalition partners in the months to come.