The fine art of creating the illusion of busy-ness whilst at the same time doing nothing that is either visible or measurable has been refined to an art form in Pakistan. Accountability in its myriad iterations and semantic convolutions is on the lips and agendas of every politician in the land. None of this ilk wants to be seen as in some way anti-accountability as that would naturally suggest that they had something to hide — which is not infrequently the case. Thus it is not in the least surprising that the parliamentary committee that oversees the laws under which the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) does business on 22nd November failed to decide which accountability laws ought to be enforced in the country, and this despite having met four times in the current month.
The current rocks-in-the-road scenario is being driven by the Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) that are opposing the bill and demanding that the existing National Accountability Bureau Ordinance 1999 should be allowed to stand and not replaced by the National Accountability Commission. All other parties had agreed to the new legislation. The PPP did nothing to advance the cause of accountability by not showing up to the committee meeting. There was also a failure to agree on what procedure ought to be in respect of filing a corruption reference against a suspect.
It is possible that the PTI and the JI smell a rat and the government is trying to manipulate the situation in favour of assorted members of the Sharif family who are currently before the courts in a slew of corruption cases; but the overall impression to be gleaned from this busy-doing-nothing activity is that accountability is a considerable irritation that most politicians would rather wither away and die. NAB has itself not exactly led a stain-free life and is something of a poor relation in terms of funding and government support. Accountability? Well maybe. But not just yet. Next question please.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2017.
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