There is overlapping of laws exercised by many government departments doing accountability.

"There is an avoidable overlap and inconsistency between the applicable laws that require to be standardised," says Dr Shoaib Suddle, a police and justice sector reform specialist, who served as the federal tax ombudsman (FTO) three years ago. "All accountability institutions must work without any interference but, unfortunately, it seems these watchdogs have been used for settling political score by politicians and dictators in the past."

There are about eleven accountability institutions to eradicate corruption from government and non-government departments. They are: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan Penal Code, Federal and Provincial Services’ Tribunals, Federal and Provincial Public Services Commissions, Prime Minister’s and Chief Ministers’ Inspection Commissions/Teams, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal and Provincial Ombudsmen, Provincial Anti-Corruption Establishments, Establishment Division and Services & General Administration Departments in all provinces.

Governments of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh are in the process of setting up their own accountability commissions.

Showing their concerns about the overlapping of laws pertaining to eliminate corruption with the help of these institutions, opposition political parties are criticising the PML-N after NAB failed to pursue the pending 179 mega corruption cases.

PPP Senator, Taj Haider, has proposed a bill titled, "National Accountability (Amendments) Act 2015," seeking amendments in various sections of NAB Ordinance 1999, which also addresses the issue of overlapping laws and their execution. "Limit NAB’s power to federal institutions," pleads Senator Haider in his proposed bill, adding that the 18th Amendment passed in 2010 provides for greater autonomy of the federating units and anti-corruption is now a "residuary subject".

Former Director General FIA, Akbar Khan Hoti, says accountability institutions should train their own investigation officers to make the process fair and reduce overlapping. "Institutions are being weakened by many (politicians and generals) who actually caused losses of billions of rupees to the national exchequer." Both NAB and FIA have had different viewpoints on the same case, which should be dealt under one law."

According to Senator Farhatullah Babar there are fundamental flaws in NAB laws. "Why does it not include accountability of judges and military persons," he asks.

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Senior officials of NAB engaged in the legal process tell TNS that due to overlapping of laws, NAB and FIA paid an estimated Rs550 million to legal experts hired to plead corruption cases abroad, particularly in Switzerland, the UK, and the UAE between 2003 and 2012 without success.

Senior lawyer, Salman Akram Raja, says, "A paradigm shift is needed to revamp accountability courts, institutions -- a way forward for better transparency in Pakistan."

Federal Ombudsman, Salman Farooqui, claims they have disposed off over 200,000 cases in the past three years filed against various institutions falling within the jurisdiction of the Centre. "Transparency is smoothly going on -- there is no overlapping of laws here."

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s legal team is working on new laws to make the accountability process more vibrant, say officials engaged in the process.

It is believed that a parliamentary commission would give a go-ahead to NAB to take cases of corruption in the military and judiciary as an overseeing body, revealed another member of the government’s legal team.

"Yes, a mechanism is being deliberated upon for across the board accountability," confirms Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Law, Ashtar Ausaf. "Reforms in the NAB Ordinance are inevitable to expedite inquiries’ processes. It’s all a part of the government legal reforms in accountability institutions."