NAB also opposed to new accountability law

It’s not only the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that is opposed to the proposed accountability law pending with the Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice for almost two years, but the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is also against the legislation.
“We have our reservations and we have conveyed our concerns to the parliamentary committee that the proposed law will dilute the role of NAB and it will be a step backwards,” NAB Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari told a group of reporters on Saturday. Bokhari, who recently assumed the post of NAB chairman, however, appeared to have brought a new vision to revamp the country’s top accountability watchdog with a particular focus on the preventive aspect of eliminating corruption, instead of what he called “nabbing the corrupt straightaway”.
His strategy, which he plans to introduce, is more focused on putting in place a mechanism of check and balance with the involvement of all state institutions to strengthen the role of the regulators to stop corruption at its source by providing protection to the top officials of the government for saying “no” to all political pressures. “We need to strengthen the regulators besides providing protection to the officers who sign papers under pressure to save their jobs,” Bokhari said, explaining how he would make NAB an effective institution to prevent corruption as he believed it could not be eliminated but could be curbed.
Though he claimed he was more concerned about the rampant corruption in the country than others, he appeared to be more of a realist who would not ruthlessly pursue the cases of corruption against the high and mighty despite having the power to take cognizance of any reported case of corruption. He said the Supreme Court had asked NAB to investigate irregularities in the state enterprises, which was hampered by the shortage of human resources and financial constraints. “We are in the process of recruiting 300 people to NAB and it will take at least one year [to complete the process]. We have also requested the government to return our two wings of Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption back to us,” he said. Bokhari said currently NAB was investigating irregularities in Pakistan Railways and had achieved considerable success in putting this national institution back on track by recovering money from contractors and negotiating with the management of Royal Palm Golf Club to revisit the agreement. The other cases, which he said were under NAB’s scrutiny, related to NLC, Bank of Punjab and ISAF containers. The chairman, however, refrained from commenting on the questions related to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), particularly about writing a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against the president, saying that it was not the bureau’s domain and the attorney general was the right man to answer this question. “I will also not comment on any matter that is sub judice,” he said, when pressed to give his opinion on the NRO. But he was all for the implementation of Supreme Court orders, saying: “It is the duty of every citizen to implement and obey the Supreme Court orders.” NAB Prosecutor General KK Agha, who was also present on the occasion, remained tight-lipped and did not say a single word on the Swiss cases. He said he was unaware if the cases were time-bound.