INSIGHT
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), often accused of arm twisting, is currently being urged by all to streamline its work to undertake across the board accountability and eliminate the mounting corruption that is undoubtedly plaguing the country’s fragile economy.
These days, the NAB officials are being criticised for allegedly harassing the investors due to which the country’s economy is suffering heavily. The matter seeks the immediate attention of both the civilian government and the security establishment.
Opposition parties, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) do not seem to be in a mood to allow the government to amend the NAB ordinance. The opposition alleges the amendment is meant to clip the wings of the bureau headed by incumbent Qmaruzzam Chauhdry, who says Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as time-lines are drastically being changed to speed up investigation.
This is being done to conform to the Supreme Court’s decision, which stipulates 75 days maximum for the accountability court to decide any reference.
Inner circles of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) maintain that the accountability bureau is under pressure from the establishment to conduct inquires and prepare references against those rich businessmen who allegedly made incredible amounts of money during the current and previous regimes. The bureau had been sitting on cases against politicians for years. However now, NAB has decided to pursue the cases, allegedly at the behest of the establishment. For this purpose, the chairman of the bureau is also believed to have been called at the GHQ to take a guideline.
“This much I can confirm to you that the sitting NAB chairman does enjoy the support and the backing of the ‘Pindi walas’ (GHQ) to go for across the board ruthless accountability of everyone, including, politicians, businessmen, former and sitting army generals in order to halt the incredibly corrupt practices,” a prominent PML-N politician said.
Who does not know that corruption worth five billion dollars is taking place every year in Pakistan, which, he said, is destroying the economy. However, he revealed the prime minister’s public outburst against NAB did not go well with the relevant quarters including the diplomatic community. These quarters, he said, maintain that if at all there were any complaints against NAB and its alleged hounding of the businessmen and the investors, the prime minister should have summoned its chairman and given him his piece of mind to avoid controversies both in and outside the country.
Never in the country’s history have high profile corruption cases been picked up on a large scale. Neither have there been thorough investigations against high profile individuals. No agency has taken upon itself to thoroughly investigate politicians, businessmen, and senior bureaucrats involved in large scale corruption, he said.
“But this culture of going scot free after making money must come to an end for which NAB authorities perhaps are taking a clear line from the establishment,” the Muslim League-Nawaz leader said, choosing to remain anonymous.
The prime minister’s public criticism of NAB speaks volumes at this point in time. In fact it all started when in July 2015, a list of mega corruption cases was presented in the apex court which also included abuse of power by the prime minister and the chief minister of Punjab. The list contained financial and land scams termed both by the finance and information ministers as “politically motivated” which was instituted by the former President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s military government.
The NAB authorities were reportedly told bluntly by the present government to go slow after their presentation of the summary of cases against the politicians in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. However, the NAB officials continued their investigations, forcing the information minister to talk about clipping the wings of the accountability bureau and cutting the unwanted nails of the investigating body.
One would tend to agree with the prime minister to remove flaws from the NAB law in order to reform it, but the choice of his timings to admonish the investigating body perhaps did not go well with the concerned quarters.
On the face, it looks as if the prime minister is not in favour of accountability. Those who agree with him maintain that Mian Sahib was constrained to talk about the issue in the public after a meeting with some top businessmen and investors. It has been alleged that the top businessmen and investors complained about the misbehaviour of some of the officials of the accountability bureau.
The situation demands handling of the affairs with the utmost care, so that investors are not sacred off and they continue doing business without the fear of being chased for the wrong reasons.
The perception is that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government remained happy, some say, unconcerned as long as it was the Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement who were facing hardships at the hands of the Rangers and NAB. Things began to get sour when NAB was reportedly directed by some important quarters to gear up pending investigations against individuals and companies in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This was also called the judiciary-establishment nexus against corrupt elements.
The PPP leadership, which was too critical of the establishment and looked towards the PML-N for support, changed its strategy by taking a 180 degree turn. Former President Zardari who is currently in New York gave a surprising statement last week in which he supported all the actions of the army. He went an extra mile when he termed as “premature” the announcement of Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s retirement. According to Zardari, the decision could cause frustration and disappointment among the masses. He implied support to the extension of the COAS tenure and his statement was seen by political analysts as mending of relations with the establishment. But he backtracked from his statement, and now nobody knows the truth as the party leaders like Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman and Mola Bax Chandio kept saying they were still to contact their leader to know the details.
The general feelings in the political circles are that the prime minister stands to bring certain amendments in the working of NAB ordinance to save what many believe his friends and relatives in the business community. However, his exception to NAB working could cause confrontation among the national institutions.
After Sindh, Punjab government too has started complaining of, what is often termed as ‘harassment’ by the NAB officials. Meanwhile, NAB looks determined to investigate corruption charges related to the energy projects, metro buses, orange line, and other development projects in which billions of rupees were allegedly siphoned off.
There are no two opinions in Pakistan that corruption must be eliminated and those involved, including politicians, generals and bureaucrats be brought to book in order to save the sinking economic ship of the country.
At the same time, people do want NAB to be free of all kinds of political interference and manipulation so it can deliver accordingly. It is generally said that NAB needs to be reorganised and its laws, rules and regulations changed to make it an independent body. Why should it continue with the much condemned plea bargain mechanism under which the culprits can get away with any punishment by paying some amount of the looted money?
Since the current NAB ordinance allows certain commission or so-called legal additional remunerations to its officials to investigate, they often, it is said, indulge in unnecessary activities to harass businessmen and bureaucrats. It is one of those practices that must to be done away with.
How best can the NAB ordinance be amended to deliver, is one of the biggest questions right now. It is a question on which all the parties should give their input and point of view. In the meantime, the negative perceptions about the NAB officials must be removed. This will help in gaining the confidence of those who want to do business with Pakistan and invest here. They will for sure heave a sigh of relief.
They provide jobs to thousands of people and pay billions of rupees in taxes, though it is still inadequate, they must be respected and given some tension free environment to work. This is the only way to stop the flight of capital and encourage investment, especially foreign direct investment (FDI) which has come down to merely $600 to $700 million annually. In the past, during 2007-08, annual FDI was close to $5.5 billion.
Yes accountability must be undertaken against all those who are involved in looting and plundering, but it should be without bias against anyone. The untrained officers of the NAB are part of the problem, as they remain incapable to investigate corruption on scientific lines. They need all the required forensic aid so the matters can investigated thoroughly and leave no shadow of doubt to create uncertainty.
For this, American and European Union models, essentially that of the United Kingdom could be replicated with a Serious Fraud Office (SFO). It can remove any need to have any supra-commission to oversight the working of the investigating body.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad
