At the end of Musharraf era and general elections of 2008, citizens of Pakistan thought that the rulers would respect their mandate by moving towards accountability of all and establishing an egalitarian society -- the essence of people’s rule. The conduct of two governments during the last seven years have frustrated their hopes as there are reports of more serious financial crimes, tax evasions and misgovernment.

The role of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in curbing perpetual and growing corruption is highly disappointing. Even after submission and re-submission of reports before the Supreme Court of "mega corruption cases", the NAB has failed to prosecute even a single person. On the contrary, the main emphasis of the NAB is on plea bargains to pocket hefty amounts as "own share" out of looted funds. Thus, offenders go unpunished by paying peanuts.

Amongst many proofs of rampant corruption in society is an ever-growing size of the parallel economy and tax evasion. Tax amnesties have also become a recurrent feature so tax cheats are protected by governments. There is no serious effort on the part of government to counter the menace of corruption and bring the enormous untaxed money into the mainstream of economy. All-pervasive corruption and unprecedented tolerance towards black money has made Pakistan a country where the very survival of public institutions is at stake. State is captive in the hands of forces representing money power.

Nobody knows what happened to the report resubmitted on July 13, 2015 by NAB in Supreme Court mentioning 150 mega (sic) corruption cases with dates of initiation of proceedings and progress so far. These cases include serious charges of misuse of authority and financial bungling against the incumbent prime minister, chief minister of Punjab, former president and premiers, ministers, serving and retired civil-military high-ups. The quantum of money involved in such cases is in billions. The report given to Supreme Court confirms an inquiry against the sitting prime minister and his brother in a case pertaining to construction of a road worth Rs126 million from Raiwind Road to Sharif’s Place on a complaint (undated) received from an informer.

Cases are pending against former president Asif Ali Zardari having assets beyond known resources. Investigations are reportedly underway for corruption of $22 billion and $1.5 billion by him. NAB is probing "three cases against the sitting federal finance minister for 23 million pounds, 3488 million dollars and 1250 million dollars."

Politicians as usual are strongly criticising NAB for "maligning them and levelling baseless charges." Khadim-e-Ala Punjab has said: "If corruption of even a single penny is proved I will quit politics". Few months back in a press conference, he claimed: "We have cleared all our loans by paying back Rs5.22 billion to different banks and financial institutions." The worthy Khadim-e-Ala has yet not contradicted a published report that "the contractor who is working on the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train project has confessed to irregularities in a separate matter and agreed to return the money involved." Why has a contractor of dubious dealings been selected for such an important project? The contractor, reportedly arrested in February, offered to return nearly Rs250 million and this request was accepted on March 2, 2016 by NAB’s Executive Board. This is the real face of accountability in Pakistan.

NAB claims to have recovered Rs262 billion during the last 15 years. In a report released in response to allegations by politicians of "character assassination" and "campaign for tarnishing of image", NAB revealed that between 1999 and 2014 it received as many as 270,675 complaints, 5,872 inquiries were authorised and about 2,908 cases were converted into investigations and 2,159 references were filed in different accountability courts throughout the country.

While battle of words is going on between NAB and its critics, nobody is concerned what happened to the judgement of Supreme Court of Pakistan, in Suo Moto Case No. 26 of 2007 and Human Rights Case Nos. 2698/06, 133, 778-P, 13933 and 14072-P of 2009. In these cases, on June 3, 2011, a three-member commission, headed by Justice Syed Jamshed Ali, former judge of apex court, was constituted to prepare a report in respect of recovery of written off loans from 1971 onwards. The commission submitted its report on February 20, 2013. The court in its order of the same date observed: "The report of the Commission to be made public, which is available for inspection according to the Rules to all and sundry." One wonders why NAB has yet not conducted any investigation on the basis of this report even after a lapse of three years!

The commission’s report, text of which is not published by any newspaper till today, reveals that Rs87 billion were written off in 38 years -- Rs2.38 billon between 1971 and 1991 and Rs84.62 billion between 1992 and 2009. The report not only recommended action against those who got their loans written off but also against the bankers and the officials who helped in getting the loans waived off. Why has NAB not taken any action against the culprits despite the clear findings of the commission?

According to a press report, the commission recommended action against many beneficiaries of loan write-offs that included such persons as the former president, former prime minister and his wife etc. Among celebrities were a leading human rights activist and lawyer, prominent businessmen and bureaucrats.

The commission gave the names of companies and directors who were beneficiaries of waivers of loans but no action has been taken till today. The commission suggested four steps: (i) principal amount should be recovered less payment already made, if any (ii) tribunals comprising on duty or retired judges of High Courts should be set up for the recovery of amounts (iii) legislation for the recovery of written off loans should be made and (iv) action should also be taken against the credit committees. As expected, the powerful vested interests resisted all steps proposed by the commission. Till today, not a single rupee stands recovered from any big fish. Even the apex court has not taken any followup action for implementation of recommendations of the commission.

The inquiry into loan write-offs by the commission revealed the modus operandi for plundering public money by the powerful segments of society but for these financial crimes NAB has failed to nab the culprits. This is the real crisis of Pakistan where the institutions established to curb corruption resort to protecting it.

Though corruption is a way of life in Pakistan -- all institutions are affected with this malady -- the target of retribution in the media, as usual, are politicians and not civil-military high-ups. Politicians allege that "the sacred cows" -- military and judiciary -- are again "united to malign us". Strangely, they do not realise that nobody is preventing them to start accountability amongst their ranks and files and then against all, including the mighty civil-military hierarchy.

Accountability should be for all -- selective one is as bad as for none. The real rulers of Pakistan -- powerful members of militro-judicial-civil complex -- promote corrupt, inefficient politicians and then use media to weaken their authority to take independent decisions as legislators and policymakers. Through these means they subtly profess control over the state. However, greedy businessmen-turned-politicians cannot absolve themselves of wrongdoing by using the argument "we are helpless". If they are serious, which they are not, to carry out accountability of all, they must demonstrate it with their actions instead of abusing NAB and what they call "the Establishment."