Accountability is one of the most popular things political parties in the Third World promise their electorates. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) is no exception in this regard. Prior to 2018 general elections, its chairman Imran Khan announced an 11-point manifesto to safeguard the country against corruption, injustice and abuse of power. He promised that his government would ensure that the country was free of corruption.

After two years of wielding state power, the PTI government has released a two-year performance report of which the second chapter revolves around ‘accountability’ and the government’s efforts to eradicate corruption, injustice and abuse of power.

Interestingly, the heading of this chapter is: National Accountability Bureau. It features a photograph of the NAB chairman, Justice Javed Iqbal (retired) along with President Arif Alvi and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser. Five pages of this chapter are about the NAB’s performance during the PTI term, the initiatives taken by the Bureau and the “way forward”.

“The government has, thus, proclaimed [through the report] that the NAB is a subordinate department of the government,” says Professor Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi, the former caretaker chief minister of the Punjab and an eminent political analyst.

Legally speaking, the NAB is an autonomous federal institution established through a presidential ordinance on November 16, 1999. Before he became prime minister, the PTI chairman had been an unrelenting critic of the bureau. He had called the NAB a tool used by successive governments to victimize the opposition for political engineering. His opinion has apparently not changed entirely.

In a recent interview, the prime minister called NAB’s probe against Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar a “joke”.

In December 2019, the PTI government amended the NAB law through a presidential order. In defence of this measure, Prime Minister Imran Khan stated that the NAB was meant to take action against public office holders for misusing the office. He said the business community had nothing to do with public service and should, therefore, be excluded from its ambit. Also, he said bureaucrats were afraid of taking significant decisions as they had been facing unnecessary pressure from the bureau. The opposition parties, however, called this an attempt to save government’s friends.

Now the government’s performance report states that, “During the last two years, the present Chairman, along with his team, took concrete steps and initiated tangible actions to bring about a revival and rejuvenation of National Accountability Bureau by enhancing both the quality and quantity of manpower, improvement in operational strategy and taking a strategic approach towards efficient handling of the cases in hand, including the huge inherited backlog.”

However, during these two years, the Lahore High Court, Sindh High Court, Peshawar High Court, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan have expressed disappointment with the performance of the anti-graft body. Only two weeks ago, the Appellate Court stated that the NAB is surely not serving the national interest. Rather, it said, it was causing irreparable damage to the country, nation and society.

“NAB’s performance, bad or good, cannot be pronounced as government’s efforts towards accountability. Factually, the PTI-led government has been unsuccessful in fulfilling its promise of unparalleled and across-the-board accountability”, says Dr Askari Rizvi.

Claiming credit for NAB’s performance is contrary to the PTI’s promise in its manifesto of ensuring “full autonomy for, and build the capacity of, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other accountability institutions and pursue all major corruption scandals regardless of political affiliation.”

During the 2018 election campaign, Imran Khan had often stated that previous governments had stifled the accountability institutions to create an environment in which corruption by the ruling elite was concealed rather than aggressively examined. He had promised to ensure accountability across the board.

To ensure good governance, Robert D Behn, a senior lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, has divided accountability into the “accountability for power, performance, justice, and finance”.

Analyst Nasir Baig Chughtai says the PTI government has failed to fulfill most of its promises, so far, including across-the-board accountability. Accountability, he says, is a part of good governance. It can increase the trustworthiness and legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the public. However, according to Chughtai, “PTI’s federal and provincial governments have been badly exposed in all types of accountability. Rather than exposing the corrupt elements involved in the embezzlement of billions of rupees in projects like the BRT, the Malam Jabba initiative, and the Billion Tree Tsunami, the PTI government has been trying hard to cover up.”

The way Khyber Pakhtunkwa Ehtisaab Commission (KPEC) has been made dysfunctional shows the seriousness of PTI government towards accountability, he adds. The KPEC was a much-publicised initiative of the PTI government to eradicate corruption in the province.

Since May 2020, the government has claimed that the release of a forensic audit report showing wrongdoings in the sugar industry is a great example of fulfilling its promise of across-the-board accountability.

Chughtai says while the release of the report has been appreciated, the government is still far from taking action against the powerful groups involved in manipulating sugar prices, obtaining undeserved subsidy and unfair trade.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and members of his cabinet have meanwhile been telling people that indiscriminate accountability remains the top-most priority of the government.

Salman Abid, political analyst, is prepared to give the prime minister a little space on the subject. According to Abid, “The publication of the forensic report on sugar subsidy even at the cost of support of Jehangir Tareen and arrest of Senior Punjab Minister, Aleem Khan, can be seen as signs of Imran Khan’s sincerity in improving the system of accountability. However, the overall approach of the PTI governments, at the Centre and in the provinces, appears compromised,” he says.

“Imran Khan does not look keen to get rid of those facing corruption charges. The accountability slogan has long been just an expression in Pakistan to attract voters. For various reasons, it loses meaning for the party that takes power. Perhaps, Imran Khan has accepted the crude reality of the system,” he adds.

The writer is a staff member. He can be reached at warraichshehryar@gmail.com