Karachi: The government of Pakistan’s Sindh province on Thursday advised its various departments not to provide any information to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), in any new cases, as the provincial government had repealed the concerned laws.

Sindh’s advocate-general has written a letter to the chief secretary as well as secretary of law that a wrong impression had been created in a section of print and electronic media regarding a Sindh High Court order on August 16.

In the order, the court directed the NAB to proceed with inquiries and investigations pending before it until further instructions, after opposition parties including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League (F) challenged the legislation made by the provincial assembly to exclude the federally administered NAB from provincial affairs.

The advocate-general said in the letter, “the order has not suspended the National Accountability Ordinance Sindh Repeal Act, 1999.”

However, he noted, the High Court had only ordered that the pending inquiries and investigations may be continued by the NAB and pending references may also be proceeded by the Accountability Courts, established under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The letter further said, as per provision of the National Accountability Ordinance, Sindh Repeal Act, 2017, the NAB Ordinance stands repealed and the anti-graft agency cannot initiate new cases or inquiries against the provincial government departments or provincial office holders.

Zamir Hussain Ghumro, the advocate general of Sindh, advised the top provincial bureaucracy to communicate all the departments and institutions of Sindh government that the Act passed by the provincial assembly in August could not be suspended.

The new Act was fiercely opposed by the opposition parties but the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), that enjoys the majority of seats, got it passed through the assembly.

The opposition parties had approached the provincial court that had started formal hearing of the case and on Tuesday ordered the federal NAB to continue its work with the provincial cases.

However, the court would resume the hearing next week.