ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been empowered to keep an accused on physical remand for up to forty days as Acting President Yousuf Raza Gilani approved an ordinance to amend the existing law.
Before the ordinance, a person arrested by the NAB could be remanded into the bureau’s custody for fourteen days. However, under the amended law, the duration of physical remand has been increased to forty days, according to media reports.
Moreover, the punishment for NAB officials for making false cases has been reduced from five years to two years.
The ordinance was passed amidst a hearing of the NAB amendments case by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
NAB Amendments
The previous Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government approved amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in a bid to curtail NAB powers.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, who tabled the bill in the National Assembly, had said that multiple amendments were made in the accountability Ordinance to clip the powers exercised by NAB.
Sharing details of the key amendments, the minister said that after fresh amendments, no arrests could be made before the completion of the probe process, and the suspect would have the right to obtain bail while 90-day remand is also abolished.
He said that 90-day remand is for terrorists and the bill will reduce the duration of remand to 14 days.
