- Too little too late?
NAB’s decision to reopen the Rs2 billion corruption references against four retired senior army officers – including ex-ISI chief and later railways minister, Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi – and a number of bureaucrats raises important questions that will, no doubt, find answers in the coming days. The initiative of going after former senior brass is not new, of course, since the Bureau summoned these officers before – in 2012 – but the process did not move beyond recording their statements. Should we expect the accountability to be more thorough this time just because, as the Islamabad High Court put it, retired officers can no longer hide behind the army’s accountability process?
How wide NAB eventually casts its net in such cases will also answer critics who fear this effort might just be meant to counter claims that the long arms of the law were not moving beyond a select political elite. Judging by history, the Bureau has its work cut out if it indeed wishes to build, finally, a reputation of transparency and credibility. Even now, it has yet to move on the more notorious land grab schemes involving senior military officials and their families. But, again, only time will tell if the momentum carries beyond the headlines this time.
Simply turbo-charging NAB might not be the most suitable route out of its long-held – and well deserved – reputation of ineffectiveness and corruption. In an environment when the Panama Papers fallout has put the spotlight on the accountability process itself, hopefully the judiciary will not vindicate its own critics by restricting its reach to corruption of politicians and bureaucrats. So far, therefore, NAB has not broken any fresh ground, only raised old questions once again. It must now reorient and restructure itself so its actions can speak for themselves.
