President's nod needed to abolish NAB: Naik

ISLAMABAD — The PPP government would require President Musharraf's approval to abolish the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as promised by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, law minister Farooq H. Naik told reporers here.
"The prior permission of the president has been made mandatory in the 17th Amendment for amending a set of laws that has been listed in the Schedule-six of the constitution," Naik said adding that the NAB law is included in the list.
The minister said the government would initially reorganise the NAB courts.
He said the law ministry was studying the options for amending the laws protected by the Schedule-six that require consent of the president.
The Local Government Ordinance and restriction on two-time prime ministers to seek the office for the third time also included in the schedule. Both the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif were specifically targeted to disqualify them from becoming prime ministers again.
Prime Minister Gilani in his first speech in the assembly pledged to abolish NAB which was used during past eight years to persecute opposition politicians on charges of corruption. Gilani himself spent five years in jail under NAB laws.
Naik said the PPP will repeal all black laws which have been made to suppress the common man and will dispel all special courts that have been excluded from the jurisdiction of the superior courts. According to the Schedule-six of the constitution, the following laws cannot be altered, repealed or amended without the previous sanction of the president: The National Accountability Bureau Ordinance 1999, Local Government Ordinance 2001, The Election Commission Order 2002, The Political Parties Order 2002, The Qualification to Hold Public Offices Order 2002 and The Police Order 2002.
A senior legal expert in the pro-Musharraf camp, Senator S. M. Zafar also endorsed Naik's view. He said that according to the present constitutional position, even parliament could not undertake any amendments to any clause that fell in the Schedule-six of the constitution.