Bilawal decries lack of consensus on bill on judges, generals’ accountability

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Tuesday that it is unfortunate that the suggestion aimed at bringing judges and generals into the purview of accountability laws has been rejected by the designated parliamentary committee.

“It’s is unfortunate parliament did not pass a more robust accountability bill. Without accountability for all and accountability across the board our current partial and political process shalll remain controversial,” [sic] he tweeted.

This is in contrast to the position his party held at the 16th meeting of the parliamentary committee on NAB laws last Wednesday, in which all parties, including the ruling party and PPP, agreed to not bring judges and generals under the ambit of the proposed National Accountability Commission (NAC), media reports stated.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which also had vowed to bring such a bill, backtracked from its stance in the meeting.

Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani during a Senate session on Thursday said that there is no need to bring such a law if there was no provision of accountability of judges and generals, The News reported. 

If it was necessary, some amendments could be made in the existing National Accountability Ordinance, he said.

Waving a copy of his PPP chairman's statement that there should be across-the-board accountability, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar had said he was in a fix why his party had to backtrack at the eleventh hour by agreeing military and judiciary should not be made accountable. 

Babar literally begged the chair to give him more time as he wanted to speak his heart out after the chair asked him to conclude his speech.

Talking on the way forward, he said that enforcing accountability seemed a distant goal, and in such a situation, he said there was left only one option: tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

In August, leaders of the two parties had also agreed to form a new body to replace the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), proposing that the bureau would only be able to probe federal institutions. 

No agreement, however, was reached on the issue.