By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani promised in the National Assembly on Wednesday that his government would bring a new consensus accountability law as he hailed as historic first reports of the opposition-led house Public Accounts Committee (PAC) whose chairman spoke of finding “horrible scandals” and “astonishing” bureaucratic misuse of funds.
But the prime minister gave no time-frame to introduce the draft over which the ruling PPP has already consulted opposition parties and allies in the 21-month-old coalition government and which will replace a controversial Musharraf-era decree that was used to target mainly the PPP leadership among politicians.
However, speculations have been rife it will be within the current parliamentary year that ends on March 15, or possibly during this session expected to last until the last week of February, that the house will see a new bill, promised to follow outlines given in the Charter of Democracy signed in May 2006 by assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif that provided for a parliamentary oversight of the process.
“It is a historic moment,” Mr Gilani said about unanimous reports of the 20-member PAC, headed by opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, and assured the house that the new accountability law “on which we are already working” would have the consensus of all parties in parliament so that it carried high credibility. Insha-Allah the bill that will come will represent aspirations of the people as well as your views,” the prime minister said.
Earlier, Chaudhry Nisar too described as historic his presentation of a 697-page report “on the accounts of the federation” for 2005-6 and two smaller ones for as back as 1989-90 and 1991-92 – based mainly on the examination of reports of the Auditor General of Pakistan – because it was the first time since 1985 that a PAC had come with three reports within a little more than a year and called for a debate on the documents for five to six days.
While promising to reveal the “horrible scandals hidden in the report” during the debate, he also spoke of “many pressures” faced by the committee whose probe, he said, also covered non-civilian departments to find “many grey areas in the performance of our uniformed brothers”.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/11/2010
