With its new chairman at the helm of affairs, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is fully functional to carry forward the accountability process while surviving against all odds and facing severe resistance and criticism from politicians and bureaucrats.
Since its inception in 2001, NAB has recovered Rs 331 billion in corruption and embezzlement cases from several politicians, civil and military bureaucrats, private contractors, businessmen and people from various backgrounds and professions. Neither the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) nor any other body has been able to deliver as much as the NAB did, despite efforts by Interior Minister Rehman Malik who tried to replace NAB with the FIA.
In his first speech in the National Assembly after being unanimously elected as the Leader of the House on March 24, 2008, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had announced to abolish NAB immediately, as he and President Asif Ali Zardari, besides several other top politicians had to face grinding at the hands of army officers looking after the affairs of NAB from 2001 to 2006. However with the passage of time, sense prevailed and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government continued with the accountability bureau by making it dormant and dysfunctional. On October 8, 2010, Zardari activated NAB by appointing Justice (r) Deedar Hussain Shah as its chairman.
A comprehensive report revealed that NAB had recovered around Rs 331 billion in corruption and embezzlement cases from 2001 to 2010.
Syed Adil Gilani, former chairman and advisor of Transparency International Pakistan, believes that the government’s insistence on bringing in a ‘faulty accountability bill’ to replace the NAB law was tantamount to evading the accountability process, which was necessary to put checks on public office holders, including the military, judicial and civil bureaucracy.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Gilani said it was unfortunate that almost the entire political elite, including the parliamentarians from the treasury benches and the opposition, stood united in protecting the corrupt practices.
“Almost all the parliamentarians are one against any voice for accountability and despite a lapse of three long years no law has been passed by the parliament to put a check against corrupt practices though half a dozen bills are pending in the Parliament House’s cold storage with no action. Even a toothless law has not been passed by the parliament. No one has been appointed as federal ombudsman to make sure that no one can question the corrupt,” said Gilani.
Asked how the accountability law could be strengthened to ensure transparency at all levels, Gilani said that according to the public demands reflected in the National Corruption Perception Survey, 2009, there shall not be discrimination in accountability law between the civilian government servants, armed forces, judicial officers, and elected public representatives.
“The new independent accountability commission therefore shall include in the definition for ‘Public Office Holder’ all persons belonging to the civil service, armed forces, judicial service and the elected representatives of the National Assembly, Senate, provincial assemblies, local government representatives, the president, governors, and advisers to the prime minister and chief ministers,” he said. Gilani added that the new commission should function under the Supreme Judicial Council rather than the government’s proposal in the Holders of Public Offices (accountability) Act 2009 to keep it under the Ministry of Law and Justice.
“Under Article 5 of the constitution, the accountability commission shall also be responsible to establish and promote effective practices aimed at the prevention of corruption, and it shall also be empowered to take administrative measures to prevent and fight corruption. Under Article 6, the government is bound to inform the secretary-general of the United Nations about the names and addresses of the authority, which presently is the National Accountability Bureau, so that it may assist other states in developing and implementing specific measures for the prevention of corruption,” he added.
He said that banks, financial institutions and other bodies associated with financial or commercial activities that referred cases of fraud, breach of trust and wilful loan-defaults are being dealt under the National Accountability Ordinance in a well defined mechanism to report and handle default cases under the supervision of State Bank of Pakistan.
