Accountability? Really?
Nawaz Sharif’s tough talk in Bahawalpur the other day has brought NAB into the limelight for all the wrong reasons once again. It is still not clear, for one thing, why the Sharif brothers would sound the alarm so loudly, except for the obvious perception that the Bureau might be about to bring some accountability to PML-N’s provincial domain. But that, as has been noted, would imply that the Sharif-Zardari arrangement to place a compliant bureaucrat with a yes-man history at the top of NAB turned out not so smart after all. And that, in turn, would obviously mean that elements more determined, at least, than the government have begun pulling the strings of the accountability process.
Typically, though, things are not so simple. Ordinarily only the corrupt would have a problem with NAB encroachment. And since the N league claims complete purity – political and financial – they should have little to worry about. But there are elements about the type of accountability NAB is offering that even the not so clean have few problems. The voluntary return and plea bargain system virtually amounts to letting the corrupt walk free after turning over a mere fraction of the looted sum.
Interestingly, there is little by way of punishment – no matter how grave the excess – except disqualification from public office. That means those with no intention of holding such office, or those that have retired, are simply exempt from accountability simply because of the contours of the model. In real terms our process of accountability promotes a system where the corrupt are forgiven provided they take a small hit to their numbered accounts and their already limited public pride. Therefore even if there is a committed hidden hand pushing forward the process, there is little to hope for intrinsically. There is an urgent need to streamline NAB otherwise accountability, however sincere, will achieve little except controversy.