Fact-check: Miftah Ismail’s video about NAB is two years old

A video clip of politician Miftah Ismail has gone viral on social media where he says that recent amendments made to Pakistan’s anti-corruption law were suggested by the military.

Ismail's statement is from 2020 not from 2022.

Claim

This month, multiple social media accounts, with thousands of followers, claimed that Pakistan’s former finance minister Miftah Ismail appeared on ARY news and told the host of the show that the National Accountability Ordinance was altered on the insistence of the military.

“The army said to us that we should sit together and work on these four bills along with” PTI, Ismail said.

The anchor then asks why did you bring the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the discussions with PTI, when the political parties had sat down to deliberate on Financial Action Task Force-related (FATF) legislation.

To which Ismail replied: “We did not bring it [NAB amendments], they did, the army.”

One Twitter user insisted that the military’s media wing respond to Ismail’s statement that the recent changes to the NAB law were suggested by the military. The tweet has received over 9,000 retweets.

Another Twitter handle also posted the video with the caption: “We did not make amendments in the NAB laws, the army asked us to do it – Miftah Ismail.”

Fact

The video footage is from December 3, 2020 not from this year. In July, the government tabled a bill to amend the anti-graft law which was later passed by the parliament.

The social media users, posting the clip, are linking the old clip to the July amendments.

On December 3, 2020, Ismail, who belongs to the PML-N, appeared on the current affairs talk-show the 11th Hour on ARY. There the discussion centered on the legislation that the then-PTI government was bringing to address the concerns of the FATF that had placed Pakistan on its grey list.

During the discussion, the opposition and government could not agree on changes to the NAB law that were being proposed by the opposition parties. Back then, Ismail told ARY News that it was the military that brought all the political parties to discuss the FATF-related legislation as well as that to alter the NAB law.

On November 12, Ismail also tweeted that the clip was old and from the time “when FATF-related legislation was required and I said that it was the 'Fauj' that brought the parties together to resolve the legislative logjam. After an interim agreement was reached, PTI backtracked on the deal,” he wrote.

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