Sindh Governor rejects PPP’s anti-NAB bill

KARACHI: Governor Muhammad Zubair on Friday refused to approve the provincial government’s NAO Repeal bill 2017 which seeks to repeal the applicability of National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

Terming the nullification of NAO 1999 against the public interest, the governor dispatched a notice along with objection note to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, according to local media reports.

Muhammad Zubair insisted that elimination of corruption is due responsibility of the government.

Sindh Assembly passed the anti- National Accountability Bureau (NAB) bill on July 3 under which NAB’s powers would be curtailed and corruption cases be catered by the provincial government rather than the federal government.

The approval was given in a high-level meeting chaired by Murad Ali Shah at the Chief Minister House after being briefed on the subject by Advocate General for Sindh, Zamir Ghumro.

The bill highlights that legislative and executive authority of the province extends to "offences with respect to provincial subjects and measures to combat corruption" being residual subjects under the Constitution

Furthermore, it adds, "emergency legislation on any provincial subject by the parliament ceases to have any effect six months of lifting emergency under Article 232 (5) and 234 (6) of the Constitution."

According to Sindh’s advocate general, corruption cases related to provincial institutions will now be probed by the Provincial Ehtesab Bureau.