PTI rejects proposed National Accountability Commission Bill 2017

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has rejected the proposed National Accountability Commission (NAC) Bill, 2017, and highlighted several flaws in it.

Raising objections over the proposed bill, PTI's senior leader Shireen Mazari said that there is not even a single measure of reform that would improve the current accountability process or bring corrupt elements to task in the Bill.

"It also does not say as to when the process of accountability shall begin," The Express Tribune quoted Mazari as saying.

The PTI leader was also against making the proposed investigation agency answerable to the incumbent National Accountability Bureau chairman and giving him the right to pardon a person accused of corruption.

According to reports, the party has rejected setting seven years as minimum punishment for those retrieving the misappropriated money.

The party also objected to a proposed provision that will give the right to bail to an accused who has been in custody for more than a year without his/her trial being concluded.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has suggested that the commission should only hold powers for federation and federal employees, while provinces should be able to make their own accountability laws.

Pakistan's Law Minister Zahid Hamid is heading the parliamentary committee, which is reviewing the bill.