Polls best way for parties accountability, says SC

ISLAMABAD    -  The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday ob­served that had Paki­stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan not resigned, he could have pointed out flaws in the amend­ments made in the Na­tional Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Jus­tice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah conducted hearing of the constitutional pe­tition of PTI chairman Imran Khan against the amendments in the NAO 1999.

During the hearing, Justice Mansoor said that had the petitioner (PTI chairman) not re­signed, he could have highlighted the defects in the amendments. Justice Ijaz stated if the debate had tak­en place in the Parliament, the defects in the new law could be point out. Representing Imran Khan, Khawaja Haris said that the PTI members were in the Senate, but no debate took place there on the amendments.

Justice Mansoor said if a par­ty pass inappropriate legisla­tion then people would not give it vote in the next elections. In the democracy, the best way of accountability of the politi­cal parties is the elections. He questioned that whether the Court can direct the Parliament to legislate in accordance with the International Conventions? He further asked that even if such direction is given then to what extent the Parliament is bound to it.The PTI chief’s counsel argued that in many cases, the Court had given such direction to the Parliament. He added that the Supreme Court rendered a judgment regard­ing the compliance of the inter­national conventions in 1994. The apex court has interpret­ed many laws in light of the In­ternational Convention, he fur­ther said.

The chief justice observed that there is mention of individuals’ corruption in the International Conventions. The individuals in­clude the consultants, suppliers, and contractors. The private per­sons and companies give errone­ous reports to the governments.

Kh Haris contended that there were allegations of corruption against nine persons in the Pun­jab Bank financial scam.