Opp Fulfilled Their Pledge To National Interest By Passing FATF Bills – Abbasi
Govt Lied In Parliament Through Its Teeth To Politicise, Hide Embarrassment Of Incompetence – Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: PMLN Central Leader and Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says the government ministers told a story full of lies, concoctions, connivance on the floor of house to hide the embarrassment faced during drafting of FATF related bills and ammendments to the NAB Law.
In a press conference, Abbasi told that the government, in a meeting 10 days ago said there were 4 bills they wanted to pass out of which 3 are to fulfill FATF requirements while 1 is about NAB. And they said they wished all 4 bills be passed together.
He said the opposition proposed 4 words to be Ammended in the FATF related bill which was accepted by the government. In the anti-terrorism Bill the opposition proposed an amendment to the definition of ‘person’ which was done to make it in accordance with Pakistan’s law and constitution.
He said the third bill regarding Economic Terrorism was questioned by the opposition on technical grounds and over the language used and is not legally enforceable. But above all that it was the most scary authoritarian Bill ever witnessed in the history of the country which allowed the abduction of any Pakistani without due procedure for 180 days with no right to appeal in court, Abbasi said. He said in fact this bill was even more tyrannical than the law being used by India to oppress Kashmiris.
He pointed out that the committee that drafted the bill included officials from Pakistan’s most sensitive security agencies. When the opposition questioned them if they had any idea what they were doing, the government withdrew that bill. The government was also questioned what makes this bill relevant to FATF and which country has ever passed such ruthless legislation to meet FATF requirements, to which the government responded in an embarrassed fashion that they had made a mistake and had no answer, he added.
The former Prime Minister said the opposition asked who drafted this Bill, was it the minister or secretary law or advisor accountability, to which the government had no answer as well.
“Over NAB bill, the opposition pointed out that the government’s draft was a clear scheme to give its blue-eyed an NRO and to further blackmail the NAB Chairman by proposing a lifetime extension in his tenure. That Bill was then withdrawn by the government and they took away the NAB Chairman extension clause and added another which was in contradiction to Pakistan’s witness law and stated that if anyone wouldn’t respond within 14 days to any clause of allegations filed by NAB, it would be considered a complete confession statement. Which the opposition refused to agree to” Abbasi said.
He said it was then decided that a committee would be formed that would analyse the NAB law clause by clause and would Ammendment it with mutual consent. This committee he told was to have 3 defence minister, foreign minister and law minister along with advisor parliamentary affairs and advisor accountability. From PPP Sherry Rehman, Naveed Qamar and Farooq Nayak from PMLN it would have been Khawaja Asif, Rana Sanaullah and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
He told When the consultations started, Farooq Nayak shared notes concerning proposed amendments. It was clarified thrice that these were not the opposition’s proposals but only Nayak’s personal take.
He told that he also mockingly sajd that the Government might politicise these notes and use them to claim the opposition was asking for an NRO, ironically and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened.
Abbasi said he told the government upfront in second meeting of the committee that if they wish to continue with the same NAB laws, they may. To which the ministers said they believe the country cannot operate with such laws. Abbasi said he also clearly laid out to the government ministers that the passing of FATF Bill and the NAB Bill are not tied to each other in any way because the opposition understands the country’s requirements and best interests regarding global affairs.
He said these were informal discussions and it was immoral to share the details publicly but after the blatant lies and stories dished out by government ministers, he had no choice but to tell the public the truth.
Abbasi told that the government ministers said that the Prime Minister does not agree with the proposed amendments to the NAB law and the Committee cannot overrule the PM. Abbasi said upon hearing this the opposition said its fine because the entire proposal of reviewing and ammending clause by clause was the government’s own idea and if it wants to back off its their decision to which the opposition has no objection.
The government then presented even the FATF bills without the ammendments it had already agreed to and bulldozed them Through the house. But when they were presented in the Senate the same questions were and the bills had to include the same ammendments as proposed by the opposition earlier.
He said the opposition will pass these FATF related bills now in the parliament and fulfil their national duty as they had pledged all along.
