A parliamentary panel has passed 'The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2019,' proposing up to 10 years imprisonment with the objective to control the menace of corruption and make the existing laws on prevention of corruption more effective.

A subcommittee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior met with Mohammad Yousaf Talpur in the chair here on Tuesday and considered 'The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2019,' moved by MNA Sher Akbar Khan.

The mover said that corruption threatens economic development, destabilizes society and jeopardizes the rule of law. Public resources are meant for social welfare and develop infrastructure. These resources are being looted through corrupt practices, thus poverty is increasing and the citizens are suffering. The corruption weakens service delivery, damages reputation of the country and hinders foreign direct investment (FDI).

Khan further said that to control the menace of corruption and make the existing laws on prevention of corruption more effective, the punishments provided therein may be enhanced. The mover of the bill had proposed amendment of Section 2, Section 5, Section 5-B, 5-C to Act II of 1947 and proposed a maximum up to 25 years imprisonment as punishment.

The Interior Ministry maintained that 'The Prevention of Corruption Act 1947' is the first law of Pakistan applicable on public servants for their criminal misconduct. Although corruption is root cause of all ills in this country, yet the proposed punishments seems harsh and exaggerated as no rationale has been provided for the proposed enhancement.

The Section 4 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 provides that "the provision of this section shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of any, other law for the time being in force, and nothing contained herein shall exempt any public servants from any proceedings which might apart from this section, be instituted against him."

In view of the above and existing law on anti-corruption such as National Accountability Ordinance 1999, the proposed amendment is not supported. The Law Ministry supported the increase in punishment, saying it would create deterrence; however, it did not support 25 years punishment. Later the committee passed the bill while proposing maximum punishment of up to 10 years.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has recovered Rs 2.071 billion under the anti-corruption law during the last three years. Briefing the committee, the FIA official said that 1,928 corruption cases were registered during the last three years including 752 in 2017, 701 in 2018 and 575 in 2019. He further said that in 1,659 cases the accused were charge-sheeted and in 506 cases, conviction was awarded to the accused.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Anti-Corruption Department informed the committee that 73 first information reports (FIRs) were registered in 2016, 105 in 2017, 51 in 2018 and 49 in 2019. Furthermore, there were 39 convictions during 2018 and 10 in 2019. Punjab did not produce the data, saying that due to paucity of time it could not be collected, adding it would be brought in the next meeting.

Representatives from Sindh and Balochistan did not attend the meeting, as the joint secretary interior said that the committee notice was received by them too late.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019