ISLAMABAD: Former deputy chairman Senate and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senior leader Saleem Mandviwalla, on Thursday, claimed that government is planning to re-promulgate National Accountability Ordinance to curb the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s interference in the affairs of the bureaucracy and the business community.

Talking to after appearing before the Accountability Court in Kidney Hills corruption reference, he said that according to his information, the government was planning to re-issue the NAB Ordinance, which will prove his stance correct.

He said that the NAB recovers money only through plea bargain.

Due to inability of the NAB to prove its cases in the courts they pressurise people for recovery of the money, he said, adding that in majority of the cases, the NAB failed to provide substantial evidence.

The NAB is harassing businessmen due to which they met President Arif Alvi and they have also written a letter to the chairman NAB.

To a question that the PPP after parting ways with the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has gone on the back foot, he said that parting ways with the PDM by the PPP does not mean that politics has come to an end.

The PPP whether remain part of the PDM or not the politics will continue, he said, adding that the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has said that his party will support the opposition and will expose the government.

When he was asked regarding Maryam Nawaz's statement that the PPP is no longer part of the PDM and should not be discussed any longer, he said that "if there had any love affairs, it was from the PML-N side, adding that how it ended could not be described as they had started it and most probably it was one-sided love".

He said that parliamentarians will write a letter to the Ministry of Finance to provide details of the amount recovered by the NAB and from who it was recovered.

To a question about Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan getting into a physical altercation with PPP MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhail in a TV talk show, he said that Awan's act in the TV show was regrettable.

Earlier, he and other accused appeared before the Accountability Court-I Judge, Muhammad Bashir, in illegal allotment of plots of Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Limited (OCHSL) (Kidney Hill) case.

The court did not frame charges against him and others due to absence of two accused.

The court was informed that one of the accused, Tariq Mehmood, tested positive for the Covid-19 and another, Abdul Qadir has underwent surgery on May 1, and the doctors have advised him bed rest.

The court marked attendance of all the accused and adjourned hearing of the case till June 23.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021