Nawaz Sharif could be arrested if not get transit bail: Law Minister

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar on Tuesday said that if the former Prime Minister and PML-N leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif does not get transit bail, he could be arrested.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the law minister said that the burden evidence is being asked to be changed but the initial evidence will remain with the NAB and no one s dignity should be allowed to be tarnished in NAB s political cases, adding that if Nawaz Sharif did not get transit bail then he could be arrested but if he gets a security bail then we cannot arrest him because former prime minister Benazir Bhutto also got security bail. If anyone wants to surrender to law then the court should give a way.

Discussing the NAB’s role on inquiry and investigation, he said that six months time was proposed for inquiry and investigation each, as police takes 17 days for an inquiry, if the institution needed more time then it should seek permission from competent court.

While the draconian law of remand was 90 days which was against the dignity of human being and useless, therefore, it is being reduced to 14 days. With the exception of terrorism related cases, 90 days remand was granted nowhere. In the new amendment, the NAB would debarred from pretrial incarceration, he added.

He said that most of these amendments were introduced by the PTI government through an ordinance in November 2021. But the government disagreed with some of the amendments introduced by PTI such as the appointments of retired judges as accountability court judges instead the government wanted to appoint the serving district and session’s judges by the high courts.

The post of the Chairman NAB should not be extendable, he added.

The law minister stated that the rights of people would ruin if the accountability watchdog continued to perform its duty with existing laws. He said that the economic scenario of the country would have been changed if these laws were amended 10 years ago.