Approval for bringing amendments in the NAB law was given during a meeting at the presidency in which Law Minister Farooq Naek briefed Zardari on the NAB law and the amendments proposed therein. The president, however, urged a debate by the cabinet on the issue before incorporating the proposed amendments.

Sources said only corruption references of government officials will now be sent to NAB while parliament will hold the accountability of parliamentarians and politicians by constituting a special committee.

It was also decided that NAB Chairman Naveed Ahsan will be replaced and a new interim chairman will be named by Prime Minister Yousaf Gillani soon. It has been proposed that the NAB chairman be appointed with the consent of the opposition leader.

The sources said that according to the proposed amendments, all accountability courts will be abolished and cases will be tried in regular courts that work under the high courts.

The sources said it was also proposed that the NAB authority to send corruption references directly to the courts should be taken back and handed over instead to the Ministry of Law.

The sources said all those laws described as discriminatory by political parties since the promulgation of the NAB Ordinance will be removed under the new amendments proposed by the law minister.

Briefing the President the Law minister gave the background of how the NAB law was enacted over a decade ago for the so called accountability of corrupt elements but had actually been misused for political ends.

He said that amendment to the NAB law could be made only with the approval of the President as NABO had been included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution under the 17th amendment which states that the laws mentioned in it can be amended only with the approval of the President.

The President remarked that the proposed changes in the law should be discussed in the Cabinet for finalization before they are submitted to the Presidency.

The President remarked that the Pakistan Peoples Party was committed in the Charter of Democracy to amend the accountability law so that it could not be used for social and political engineering by vested interests.

The Charter of Democracy states that the politically motivated NAB will be abolish and replaced by a independent Accountability Commission whose Chairman will be appointed jointly by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition with the advise and consensus of a joint parliamentary committee.

The meeting was also attended by Attorney General of Pakistan Sardar Muhammad Latif Khosa, Sherry Rehman, Minister for Information and the officials of the relevant ministries.