The cabinet committee on Anti-Corruption Establishment met today

Lahore : The cabinet committee on Anti-Corruption Establishment Law Reforms constituted by the Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif met today at ACS Conference Room, Civil Secretariat Lahore in the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Shumail Ahmad Khawaja.

The committee has been assigned ToRs to remove anomalies and existing shortcomings in the relevant law and rules pertaining to Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab along with suggesting remedial measures and best possible legal provisions to make the Anti-Corruption Establishment more effective as far as conviction rate of the culprits is concern.

Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja constituted a sub-committee comprising Secretary Prosecution Punjab and DG Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab to prepare detailed briefing on the subject and put it before the next meeting of the cabinet committee within a week.

The recommendations will be sent to the Punjab Chief Minister after through scrutiny by the cabinet committee. The ACS hoped that the new draft law after approval from the provincial cabinet and the House of Punjab Assembly will help eliminate corruption and bribery including white collar crimes in a manner which will definitely commensurate the international benchmarks of good governance in criminal justice and will also help prevent trespassing of NAB into the jurisdiction of ACE Punjab.

All this process can culminate into the establishment of a more powerful “Punjab Anti-Corruption Agency” in the near future, he added.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Services Punjab Farhan Aziz Khawaja, Secretary Prosecution Punjab Syed Ali Murtaza, Director General ACE Brig. (R) Muzaffar Ali Ranjha, Additional Advocate General Punjab Imtiaz Kaifi, Director ACE Naveed Shahzad Mirza, Deputy Secretary Law Abid Raza, Additional Director Law Muhammad Naeem Khan, Deputy Secretary (Estab) S&GAD Ms. Sidrah Yunis and Law Officer ACE Ms. Saadia Aziz.

The meeting also decided to opt Prosecutor General Punjab as Ex-Officio Member of the cabinet committee.