ISLAMABAD - A treasury lawmaker in the Senate on Tuesday proposed the formation of parliamentary committees on intelligence in both the houses to bring the country’s intelligence apparatus under the oversight of parliament.
“Keeping in view the parliamentary oversight, I propose that the committees on intelligence should be created in both the houses as such bodies exist in many countries of the world,” said PPP Senator Mian Raza Rabbani while taking part in the budget debate.
He also said that the parliamentary committees on defence should also move forward to discuss the defence budget to bring it under their review.
Senator Rabbani, whose party is an ally of the coalition government in the centre, making a hard-hitting speech said that Pakistan’s financial and economic sovereignty has been sold out to international financial ‘imperialistic’ institutions. “It is regrettable that Pakistan’s budget is not formed in the country, rather its targets are decided by international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF)”. He urged that the government should not take dictation from the IMF or World Bank and the parliament being a sovereign institute should take decisions on fiscal budget.
He said that the condition of the IMF to maintain one federal account with the central bank should be revisited as international financial institutions wanted to keep the country's national security institutions under their oversight through this term.
The ruling coalition and the opposition parties also traded barbs in the house for the second consecutive day on the enactment of amended National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law with the former, saying that the law has been amended to protect basic human rights and the latter claiming that the treasury wanted to get relief from corruption cases as a result of new legislation.
Rabbani urges parliament’s supremacy in
fiscal decisions making instead
of IMF, WB
The statements of two Federal Ministers, Ahsan Iqbal and Khurram Dastgir Khan also came under severe criticism in the house by opposition PTI, which said that their separate remarks have vindicated its stance that the present coalition seized power through US-backed foreign conspiracy only to wrap up the ongoing corruption cases against them.
PTI Senator Shibli Faraz, speaking on the amended NAB law said that the ruling coalition was aware of the economic meltdown, but it was more interested to get away with their corruption cases through NRO-II (National reconciliation Ordinance-II) — a reference to the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, recently passed by the joint sitting of the parliament. He alleged that the government has made tailor-made amendments in the law to legitimise corruption of leadership of coalition parties. He pointed out that the autonomy of NAB has been undermined by placing it under the Ministry of Interior.
His party colleague Senator Ejaz Chaudhary said that the amendments would help political leadership of PPP and PML-N to get relief in corruption cases while civilians and bureaucrats would also benefit from the law.
Former Senate chairman and PPP Senator Farooq H Naek, in his response said that NAB law was used for political engineering and victimisation of political leadership including his party leaders in the past. He said that some controversial and ‘black’ provisions including the powers of chairman NAB to arrest have been repealed in the law.
Law Minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the accountability process should not be at the cost of human rights and the economy, which are some of the reasons to amend the law. He contended, “The so-called engineered accountability at the cost of billions of dollars is unacceptable to us.”
“Keeping in view the parliamentary oversight, I propose that the committees on intelligence should be created in both the houses as such bodies exist in many countries of the world,” said PPP Senator Mian Raza Rabbani while taking part in the budget debate.
He also said that the parliamentary committees on defence should also move forward to discuss the defence budget to bring it under their review.
Senator Rabbani, whose party is an ally of the coalition government in the centre, making a hard-hitting speech said that Pakistan’s financial and economic sovereignty has been sold out to international financial ‘imperialistic’ institutions. “It is regrettable that Pakistan’s budget is not formed in the country, rather its targets are decided by international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF)”. He urged that the government should not take dictation from the IMF or World Bank and the parliament being a sovereign institute should take decisions on fiscal budget.
He said that the condition of the IMF to maintain one federal account with the central bank should be revisited as international financial institutions wanted to keep the country's national security institutions under their oversight through this term.
The ruling coalition and the opposition parties also traded barbs in the house for the second consecutive day on the enactment of amended National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law with the former, saying that the law has been amended to protect basic human rights and the latter claiming that the treasury wanted to get relief from corruption cases as a result of new legislation.
Rabbani urges parliament’s supremacy in
fiscal decisions making instead
of IMF, WB
The statements of two Federal Ministers, Ahsan Iqbal and Khurram Dastgir Khan also came under severe criticism in the house by opposition PTI, which said that their separate remarks have vindicated its stance that the present coalition seized power through US-backed foreign conspiracy only to wrap up the ongoing corruption cases against them.
PTI Senator Shibli Faraz, speaking on the amended NAB law said that the ruling coalition was aware of the economic meltdown, but it was more interested to get away with their corruption cases through NRO-II (National reconciliation Ordinance-II) — a reference to the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, recently passed by the joint sitting of the parliament. He alleged that the government has made tailor-made amendments in the law to legitimise corruption of leadership of coalition parties. He pointed out that the autonomy of NAB has been undermined by placing it under the Ministry of Interior.
His party colleague Senator Ejaz Chaudhary said that the amendments would help political leadership of PPP and PML-N to get relief in corruption cases while civilians and bureaucrats would also benefit from the law.
Former Senate chairman and PPP Senator Farooq H Naek, in his response said that NAB law was used for political engineering and victimisation of political leadership including his party leaders in the past. He said that some controversial and ‘black’ provisions including the powers of chairman NAB to arrest have been repealed in the law.
Law Minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the accountability process should not be at the cost of human rights and the economy, which are some of the reasons to amend the law. He contended, “The so-called engineered accountability at the cost of billions of dollars is unacceptable to us.”
