Broadsheet apology

In an interview with this newspaper’s reporter, assets recovery firm Broadsheet’s CEO Kaveh Moussavi has admitted that he has not found any evidence of corruption against Nawaz Sharif – after an over two-decade-long investigation process. Moussavi has also issued an apology to the former prime minister and said that he was part of a 'witch hunt' in the name of accountability, and that to him there is no doubt left that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had made cases against Nawaz Sharif on political grounds. It is worth recalling that we had also recently seen the UK’s super anti-corruption force National Crime Agency (NCA) end a major money-laundering investigation into Shahbaz Sharif and his son Suleman without any further action and unfreezing their assets after finding no evidence of criminal conduct, money-laundering and abuse of public office.

The bizarre story of the Broadsheet investigations begins in 2000, when NAB is said to have hired the services of the offshore company to track the assets of more than 200 politicians, bureaucrats and generals. The company was promised 20 percent of all the assets recovered by NAB, which later reneged on the agreement and got stuck in international arbitration with the company. Moussavi had in the past accused the Sharifs, Zardari, Gen Musharraf and others of bribery, kickbacks and selective accountability. He now says that NAB is a ‘witch-hunt outfit’ that wanted to ‘go after political enemies’.

Regardless of which government has been in power in Pakistan, over the years, accountability has largely been used to settle political scores. But the PTI’s mantra of accountability has faced a larger share of controversy, seeing how the ruling party had run its whole election campaign on this one slogan. For over three years, the opposition has been crying foul over how NAB has been operating – arbitrary arrests and detentions; allegations of undue harassment of those under investigation; and at times even resorting to detention without filing references. The Broadsheet CEO's apology has naturally been welcomed by the PML-N, the party's president Shahbaz Sharif calling it a 'very important' day for Pakistan. The government is sticking to its side of the story, though, with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry claiming that Moussavi himself is a NAB 'culprit' and that the presser by Shahbaz Sharif betrays anxiety (regarding corruption cases against the Sharifs).

While corruption is a problem in Pakistan, as it is in other developing countries, corruption cases also have to be proved. Just a feeling that someone may be corrupt is not enough to arrest them or frame charges against them or drag them to court. An unpopular government cannot keep using corruption as an excuse to either gun for its opponents or placate its electorate who also need economic stability, jobs, governance. It is also because of the way the anti-corruption campaign has been conducted the past few years that the curious episode of Broadsheet and its CEO – and the curiouser episode of the former accountability czar, Shahzad Akbar, who had a major role in the recent Broadsheet affairs – raises more questions than provides answers. This is unfortunate in a country that does need a broad-based investigation into corruption – one that does not play any favourites, and is as transparent as possible.