Democracy is supposed to lead to a transparent system, guaranteeing systems that ensure across-the-board accountability. In the case of Pakistan, the fate of both hangs in the balance. Not just that, all talk about accountability has come at the expense of the political class whether it’s one party pitched against the other or the military establishment pitched against them all.

Whether it’s the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) or the Ehtesab Bureau or the anti-corruption establishments at the provincial level or the current overarching National Accountability Bureau (NAB), they are all perceived as political tools, used for victimisation of political opponents rather than mechanisms to hold the public or private sector accountable for their misdeeds.

The cautious protests by the chairman Senate and the Leader of the Opposition, both belonging to the former ruling party PPP, against a selective accountability exercise currently set in motion is only a sign of fissures in the system.

There are murmurs that the selective accountability in Sindh will move to Punjab and in the process malign most politicians. There are rumours too that "the NAB is playing in the hands of the establishment". No institution with stakes in the political system would want accountability to look so partial. And yet it does.

It is this accountability debate that we have made a subject of our Special Report today.

Read Dr Muhammad Waseem’s interview: "There has to be a wider agenda for accountability and not a selective one"