Nawaz, Zardari to play key informal role in NAB chief’s appointment

ISLAMABAD: The prevailing highly polarized political milieu will seriously hamper hassle-free, unanimous selection of a new chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and the nomination is going to be embroiled in tremendous politicking in the days to come.

Such tense, stressed environment prevails basically because of the use of spiteful language, full of abuses and unsubstantiated allegations, in the political field and lack of trust on each other, which makes it well neigh impossible to arrive at a consensus on the key appointment.

In this atmosphere, only a thick-skinned person will be willing to accept this slot because not only during the course of consultations but even after his nomination he must have the courage, energy and stamina to bear the wild attacks coming on him from different political circles.

The nomination has assumed extraordinary significance as it has been necessitated at a time when the NAB has filed four references against deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his children, his son-in-law and Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in an Islamabad accountability court.

However, the law is very clear on this selection and entails no extensive, unnecessary process, but politicians make it complicated and controversial in their bid to get their respective choices installed as the NAB chairman.

Section 6 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, provides that there shall be a NAB Chairman to be appointed by the President of Pakistan in consultation with the Leader of the House (Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in this case) and the leader of opposition (Khursheed Shah) in the National Assembly for a non-extendable period of four years and shall not be removed except on the grounds of removal of the Supreme Court judges.

This section strictly excludes any consultations by the prime minister or the opposition leader with any other political party in the appointment of the NAB chairman. But still to evolve a consensus to avert deep rows, other political parties are being consulted like the past. In this spirit, Khursheed Shah has talked to leaders of some political parties. But it is a fact that as this process will be expanded, it will be marred by disagreement.

It is because of this appointment and the future nomination of a caretaker prime minister that the two sworn rivals – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) – have started hobnobbing so that they could bring their joint opposition leader in the National Assembly in place of Khursheed Shah to become the principal consultee as per the NAO as well as the constitution. They want to oust Khursheed Shah on the basis of putting together a larger strength in the National Assembly compared to that of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Initial parleys between Abbasi and Khursheed Shah on the subject and the opposition leader’s discussions with other political parties apart, the actual decision makers in choosing the new NAB chairman will be Nawaz Sharif and former President and PPP chief Asif Ali Zardari because it is an absolutely foregone conclusion that their nominees – Abbasi and Khursheed Shah – will do whatever they would be recommended by their party supremos.

Neither Nawaz Sharif nor Zardari would obviously like to have a NAB chief on the recommendation of the PTI or another political party. While the ousted premier has been arraigned by the NAB in different references, Zardari is also facing an appeal in the high court against his acquittal by a Rawalpindi accountability court on August 26 in the last corruption case.

However, for many months Nawaz Sharif and Zardari are not even on talking terms. The PPP believes and rightly so that if it engages in talks with Nawaz Sharif on any issue, it may hurt it badly at a time when the next general elections are very close.

But despite this tussle, the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are going to be involved through informal contacts at different levels to hammer out a consensus on the next NAB chairman. Whatever the via media they will adopt, it will undoubtedly be approved by the ousted premier and the PPP chief. There is no other leader in the two parties who has the final authority to take a decision on the new NAB chief.

The selection is required to be made before October 9, the last date of the retirement of incumbent NAB chairman Qamar Zaman so that the new man is in place But given the political confrontation, it may drag for some time. However, if no appointment was made by then, the deputy chairman will become the acting chief.