ISLAMABAD The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has once again approached some senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for the resumption of the dialogue process on the new national accountability law as well as for filling the vacant seat of Chairman NAB with a mutually acceptable apolitical person. Sources in the PPP said that some senior party leaders, including Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Senator Mian Raza Rabbani and Syed Khurshid Shah, had approached Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Ch Nisar Ali Khan in this connection and expressed their partys willingness for the resumption of talks on draft of the National Accountability Commission bill pending with the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice for long. Sources said that the PPP leaders had assured the PML-N leaders that the government was ready to incorporate the suggestions of the PML-N in the draft NAC bill so that it could be sail through the parliament at the earliest. The PML-N wanted financial and administrative autonomy of the proposed National Accountability Commission with a serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan as its chairman, whereas the PPP insisted that the chairman could be a person who qualifies to be judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan while it was also not in favour of giving absolute autonomy to the new accountability apparatus. Due to these differences tabling of the draft bill was deferred as PML-N members in the Standing Committee on Law and Justice accused that the chairperson of the Committee had tempered with the draft agreed in the committee meeting earlier. Later, at one stage Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said it on the floor of the National Assembly that he had given the draft NAC bill to PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and asked him to incorporate the changes he wanted in the draft and the same would be presented in the parliament, but all this couldnt be materialised. The proposed amendments were never made in the draft bill and the matter remained in limbo. Sources in the PML-N said that they would welcome if the PPP would accept their demand of establishing a strong accountability department free from all sort of political and bureaucratic pressures, but they have serious doubts about the sincerity of the PPP keeping in view their track record. The sources in the PML-N said that their proposed amendments were still with the NA Standing Committee on Law and Justice and the ball was in the court of the government and they have to call a meeting of the Standing Committee to take up this issue. On the issue of filling the vacant seat of Chairman NAB, the sources in the PML-N said that their point against the appointment of Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah as Chairman NAB was validated by the Supreme Court when it declared the appointment void ab initio. The sources further said that now the apex court had once again included its role in the appointment of Chairman NAB in case both Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition failed to agree on a name. In that case, the Chief Justice of Pakistan would intervene and play a decisive role after consulting both the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly. A senior lawyer commenting on this said that the infighting between the government and the opposition had compromised their position and the apex court had carved out its decisive role in the appointment of Chairman NAB. Sources further said that on the appointment of Chairman NAB, the Leader of the Opposition had asked the ruling party to come up with mutually acceptable apolitical person and he would not object to it, but in case they came up with a diehard PPP worker like Deedar Hussain Shah, then he would be left with no choice but to reject it. Since the removal of Deedar as Chairman NAB on court orders, the department has been functioning without a chairman.