PM’s proposals: Accountability process will be improved, says NAB

ISLAMABAD:

A day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cautioned the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against ‘harassing honest officials’ or else the government will take action, the apex corruption watchdog said it ‘respects the prime minister’s opinion’.

“Today, NAB is an independent institution owing to non-interference from the government,” the bureau said in a statement on Wednesday. “Fast-paced steps are being taken to rectify some undesirable things the institution has inherited,” it added. Moreover, it said the accountability process would be improved in light of the prime minister’s proposals.



Premier Nawaz advised NAB on Tuesday to take up cases only after ‘thorough initial investigation’. “No one should be harassed without verification and solid proof,” he added.

“If anyone is unduly persecuted, then the government will take action.”

The prime minister’s warning was met with mixed response from the opposition. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was unequivocal in its criticism of Nawaz’s  warning, while the Pakistan Peoples Party minced its words tagging the words ‘constitutional parameters’ with accountability.

Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, PTI lawmaker Ghulam Sarwar wondered how the prime minister could react in this way at a time when the bureau was all set to investigate ministers of the federal and Punjab cabinets.



However, Sarwar was not allowed to speak his heart out as the deputy speaker turned off his mic, citing time constraint as a reason. “You’re not ready to face the reality,” Sarwar hit back.



Syed Khursheed Shah, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, said the prime minister’s statement showed his frustration which indicated something serious was going on behind the scenes. “His [prime minister’s) message is loud and clear to the quarters concerned,” Shah said.

Shah agreed with the PTI that action against NAB at this stage would be considered conflict of interest. “This statement also made it difficult for the [Finance Minister] Ishaq Dar-led panel to continue working on NAB reforms or disbandment of the bureau to pave way for an independent commission.”

The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the prime minister’s warning against the ‘harassment of government officers and innocent persons’ at the hands of NAB should not be mere eyewash as attempts to paralyse the Sindh government through conducting raids in its offices and arrests of officers remained the prime examples of overstepping constitutional limits.

“NAB, FIA and some other federal agencies had been targeting a single province, its government and officials in violation of rules, but Nawaz Sharif’s ministers defended the onslaught and invasions vehemently,” he said in a press statement. He said the PPP always supported an across-the-board accountability without the sacred cow syndrome, and within the constitutional parameters formulated for every institution.



Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said he was ‘surprised’ by the prime minister’s threat to NAB. “In such a situation, a transparent and impartial accountability cannot be expected,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “The parties in power are trying to protect their leaders and workers.” He added that interfering with NAB’s working and placing restrictions on constitutional organisations was tantamount to obstructing the supremacy of the Constitution.

Taking cue from the prime minister, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah stressed on Wednesday that any accountability should be based on ‘solid and tangible evidence’. “NAB action is not acceptable if it is being launched to please certain circles,” he told journalists outside the provincial assembly.

NAB could not prove anything in the Nandipur power project, while an undue hue and cry was being raised against the Orange Line Train Project. Asked about the prime minister’s warning, he said it should be taken in a positive manner because whatever he said, he said for the good of the agency.

Nonetheless, Sanaullah insisted that the corruption references against Nawaz Sharif were baseless, adding that no corruption could be established against the premier in these references which were filed in 2002 during the military rule of Pervez Musharraf.

Replying to another question, he said all development projects initiated so far during Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government were transparent. “The chief minister is not responsible if some technical faults hindered the progress of Nandipur project,” he said.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2016.