Muzaffarabad, July 28: The federal minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan affairs Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo has agreed, in principle, to withdraw a controversial ‘advice’ by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, in his capacity as chairman PaK Council, seeking repeal of the application of accountability law in the PaK Council with retrospective effect, highly placed sources told Greater Kashmir.
 The decision was conveyed by Wattoo to PaK President Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan during a meeting on the highly critical issue in Islamabad the other day. PaK’s senior minister Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin was also present in the meeting, sources said.
 The PaK President, who had a very categorical stand on the issue from the day one, told the federal minister that the PaK government and the Peoples Party could not afford the proposed amendment for a number of reasons, the outrage of PaK’s civil society at alleged “dictatorial role of the PaK Council and acts of corruption being on top of them,” sources privy to the meeting said.
 According to them, the president also pointed out that the no law could be repealed or enacted from back dates and Prime Minister Ashraf’s office had been exploited by the vested interests who wanted to evade accountability at the hands of the PaK Ehtesab Bureau (EB) through his advice.
 Khan also made it clear that it was unbecoming of him to amend a law that had been enacted by the PaK Assembly, sources added.
 Sources said while Wattoo had been out to push through the amendment, Ms Faryal Talpur, sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, was however supporting the argument of PaK president. Ms Talpur is also incharge of PaK affairs.
 According to sources, the withdrawal of PM Pakistan’s advice was bound to reinvigorate the PaK Ehtesab Bureau which has already taken action to unearth hitherto unchecked corruption in the Council and punish the culprits.
 In the same connection, the Bureau has issued arrest warrants for PaK Council’s joint secretary Malik Qaiser Majeed, accounts officer Haq Nawaz Abbasi and PaK Income Tax Commissioner Qaiser Iqbal.
 Sources disclosed that it had also been decided at the meeting that Majeed, a CSP officer serving in the PaK Council for more than eight years, would be removed from there “as he had attempted to pit the PaK government against the Centre to save himself and a set of other corrupt elements from accountability.”
 However, on being contacted by Greater Kashmir on Saturday, Majeed alleged that some people in PaK bureaucracy were misleading the government there.
 “I have not done any corruption and all this hype is most probably to get me transferred because I am the main hurdle in their eyes… I thwarted the move (by PaK government) to increase the Council seats unilaterally in February this year and make the prime minister of Pakistan weak,” he said.
 However, when asked how the empowerment of the federating units or PaK could be dubbed as weakness of the federation, he evaded the answer.
 He maintained that he was “just following the legal position” and as the amended accountability act by PaK Legislative Assembly in 2010 had not been adapted by the PaK Council all actions by the EB chairman were illegal and have no legal value.
 “I have proposed that the Council should come under (federal government’s) National Accountability Bureau,” he said.
 However, a senior bureaucrat in Muzaffarabad said Majeed was trying to prove himself indispensable which was against the universal truth.
 “PAK Council is a product of PAK’s Constitution and it will have to be governed through this document,” the official said, adding, decisions could not be made in contravention of this basic principle.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST