Dragons guarding the treasure-trove?

• Government departments defy NAB requests for case records

In western democracies where rules of the political game are scrupulously followed, or in a society where rule of law prevails, a well-established bureaucracy is a permanent feature, while governments may come and go. Bureaucrats are expected to follow lawful commands and implement policies of political masters in a neutral, professional manner. Individual liking, vested political or personal interests do not intrude in this process. In Pakistani society, where people delight in taking short cuts and cutting corners for quick overnight gain, an independent bureaucracy, the very backbone of nation building, also stands starkly politicised, with known favourites, who like bad coins return with every tenure of their political patrons, monoplising lucrative and powerful posts, and indulging in all manner of illegalities while still remaining ‘untouchable’. Servile ‘civil servants’ willingly hitch their star to a particular political wagonor personality and slavishly perform every bidding, right or wrong, instead of reserving their ultimate loyalty for the state. The case of the ‘vanished’ Swiss Bank Account documents and the alleged recent record-tampering in a crucial case involving the Sharif family by the (technically still!) SECP chief are blatant and criminal instances, not to talk of repeated mysterious arson of incriminating material.

Bureaucratic decline and fall over the last three decades have now reached a point where the NAB chairman on Thursday warned that dilatory tactics of some Punjab government departments in handing over relevant record of high-profile cases currently under investigation, even three months after the graft body had requested them, will no longer be tolerated. Promising across the board accountability (including self-accountability) against corruption and fraud, the chairman denied NAB affiliation with any party, partiality, element of conspiracy against democracy or vindictiveness in its investigations, rightly pointing out that massive national debt of $84 billion demands answers regarding past disbursements, of massive corruption cases swept under the carpet. The Punjab government spokesman’s reply was guiltily evasive, replete with allegations, exaggerations and inaccuracies, and even obliquely critical of the simple NAB request for concerned record, a defiant example of the very mindset that the NAB chairman seeks to cure. LDA black sheep and Double Shah’s, also beware.