Govt mulls over commission to reform ehtesab system

ISLAMABAD: Following mounting pressure in the wake of PanamaLeaks, the PML-N government is considering setting up a Commission under a reputed retired judge of the Supreme Court to prepare a comprehensive plan for establishing a trustworthy and independent accountability (ehtesab) commission.

Sources said that recently in a high-level official meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif aspired to have a reformed accountability commission. The premier was of the view that a non-controversial and reputed retired chief justice should be engaged to study the present system of accountability and suggest to the government how to have a foolproof accountability system.

The sources said that following the prime minister’s desire, a reputed retired chief justice was contacted for the task. However, he was reluctant to do the job. Now the government may contact someone else for the task.

The PanamaLeaks has badly exposed four most relevant state institutions including the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Investigations Agency, Federal Bureau of Revenue and the State Bank of Pakistan as none of them initiated any action or probe into this issue of global importance.

While the State Bank and FIA remained unmoved, the NAB and FBR despite having in-house discussions and meetings on the issue soon got cold feet and decided to stay away from any probe into the matter. None of these institutions wanted to annoy the government.

The disclosures about the offshore companies owned by hundreds of Pakistanis have possible aspects of money laundering, corruption, tax evasion -- the issues which fall in the domain of NAB, the FIA, FBR and State Bank of Pakistan. Yet they avoided initiating any action because of politicisation and for being under strong government influence.

It is generally believed that had these institutions fulfilled their responsibility, there would have not been any need for setting up a judicial commission to probe the PanamaLeaks issue.

The government and political parties at present are at each other’s throats on the issue of terms of reference for the Commission but there is no emphasis, no demand and no talks on the issue of the institution-building of NAB, the FIA, FBR and SBP in order to enable them to do their basic jobs without any fear and favour.

Every time Pakistan is hit by a scandal or serious allegations against any key public office-holders, there comes a demand for the formation of a judicial commission. No attention is, however, paid to the real issue i.e. depoliticisation and empowerment of institutions.