Pakistan government makes overnight stringent changes in anti-corruption laws

Pakistan's government has made overnight changes in the anti-corruption laws to make them more stringent, hours before former premier Imran Khan's appearance before the country's apex anti-graft investigation agency on Tuesday in a corruption case.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, who is working as acting president in the absence of President Arif Alvi, who is away on pilgrimage, issued an ordinance to empower the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to arrest a suspect during inquiry period and also allow the NAB court to remand a suspect for 30 days in custody after arrest instead of earlier 15 days.

The ordinance was issued at the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“The prime minister’s advice in para 6 of the summary is approved. The National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, is signed and promulgated,” a notification signed by Sanjrani stated.

The changes were made around midnight and just hours before Khan was set to appear before the NAB.

Khan, 70, left with his wife Bushra Bibi from Lahore to Islamabad as both were to appear before the NAB in the Al-Qadir Trust case, his media team announced in a WhatsApp message.

The Al-Qadir Trust case alleges that the PTI chief and his wife obtained billions of rupees and land from a real estate firm for legalising Rs 50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous government led by Khan.

The Al-Qadir Trust case is about corruption of at least Rs 50 billion. Khan has denied any wrongdoing and accused the government of targeting him for political reasons.

Interestingly, the same government earlier had changed the NAB law to reduce the remand period to 14 days from the original 90 days. But it again enhanced the remand duration to 30 days.

The NAB laws have been quite controversial as successive governments used them to silence opposition. Several current Cabinet members, including Prime Minister Sharif, remained in the NAB custody for months over charges of corruption when Khan was prime minister.