- Final draft awaits parliamentary body’s audit results.
- The OPP calls for the restoration of the original Article 248 protection.
- The PMLN agrees that the NAB should ultimately be abolished.
ISLAMABAD: During the recent discussions between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on the proposed 27th constitutional amendment, the PPP had come up with the demand of lifetime immunity for the president and abolition of the National Accountability Bureau.
Article 248 of the Constitution gives the President immunity from criminal proceedings while in office, providing that “no criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or any Governor in any court during his term of office.”
However, the OPP had attempted to extend this protection beyond this period, proposing lifetime immunity. This means that if Parliament approves, no criminal case, old or new, can continue against the President, even after he leaves office and during his lifetime.
The party had also demanded the abolition of NAB, an issue that was part of the Charter of Democracy (CoD), signed between the PPP and the PML-N in 2006.
The CoD had promised to replace the NAB with an independent accountability commission that would operate transparently under parliamentary oversight.
The final draft of the amendment is expected to be shaped after the parliamentary body completes its review and presents its report to the Senate and the National Assembly.
PPP senior leader Murtaza Wahab, who was part of the party’s team that held discussions with the PML-N on the proposed 27th constitutional amendment, told The news that the PPP had sought to restore the original protection under Article 248 to the President, Governors, Prime Minister, Chief Minister and Ministers unconstitutionally removed by Iftikhar Chaudhry.
He said the PPP also wanted the remaining unimplemented points of the CoD – including the abolition of NAB – to be incorporated in the amendment.
Wahab explained that issues on which consensus was reached between the ruling parties have been included in the draft 27th Amendment, while other proposals, such as the abolition of NAB, which could not yet be agreed upon, remain under discussion and have not been discarded.
He added that even the PML-N shares the view that NAB should ultimately be abolished, in line with the commitment of both parties under the Charter of Democracy.
Originally published in The News
