ISLAMABAD, (APP – 22nd Jul, 2020 ) :Leader of the House in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem on Wednesday urged the opposition to come forward and join hands for removing weakness and shortcoming in accountability laws in order to strengthen accountability process in the country.

Responding to various points raised by Senators in the House, Dr Shahzad Waseem said it was a high time that the parliament played its key role to ensure fair and transparent accountability process in the country.

He said corruption was grave issue which was badly affecting the country. The people voted PTI to ensure fair and transparent accountability in order to eradicate menace of corruption, he added.

He said the national accountability commission was set up in 1997 under the headship of Saifur Rehman during PML-N government. The then national accountability commission was mainly set up to frame cases against PPP and Benazir Bhutto, he added.

Later, he said the commission was converted into National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during Gen Musharraf regime. However, he said both PPP and PML-N during their tenures did not bother to bring any amendment in it. Even, the incumbent Chairman was also appointed by PPP and PML-N, he added.

Dr Waseem said it was the PTI led government which made efforts to bring amendments in the NAB law.

Regarding Kashmir, he said that the whole nation was on same page on Kashmir issue. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan effectively raised the Kashmir, Burhan Wani Shaheed and Islamophobia issues at UN platform. No one could compromise on Kashmir issue, he added.

Regarding asset declaration, he said credit should be given to the PTI government as all its advisors and Special Assistant to PM (SAPM) declared their assets as per party manifesto. Although, there was no legal and constitutional compulsion to declare assets, all advisors and SAPMs made their assets public, he added. He said it would help ensure transparency.

Regarding participation of SAPM in cabinet meetings, Shahzad Waseem called upon the opposition to end double standard and said that whether Dr Tariq Fatimi and Sirtaj Aziz did not attended the meetings regarding foreign affairs.

He said overseas Pakistani was our assets and they sent record remittance during COVID-19 pandemic. He said the government was cognizant of their issues and set up a portal for expatriate Pakistani. As many as 40,000 expatriate Pakistani has made registration at the portal so far, he added.