NAB finds place in govt’s performance report

Lawyers, politicians say including graft buster in performance report exposes a ‘NAB-govt nexus’


Rizwan Shehzad   August 20, 2020
PHOTO: NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU

ISLAMABAD:

Surprising as it may seem, the National Accountability Bureau (NBA) has made its way into the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s two-year performance report, pertaining to different ministries and divisions of the government.

In the table of contents of the report, the second chapter is named “Accountability” and when one opens the chapter, its heading states “National Accountability Bureau” with a photo of NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal along with President Arif Alvi and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser right underneath it.

Eminent lawyers and politicians have reacted to the development, saying that NAB is an autonomous body which was established to keep check on the government with powers to even arrest a sitting prime minister. They added that including the graft buster in the government’s performance report “exposed the nexus between NAB and the government.”

“This clearly shows NAB as accountability arm of the government, an extension of the regime as an instrument to coerce the political opponents of the regime,” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said. “Government has owned up to NAB as a cog of its official machinery,” the PML-N leader added.

“NAB is acting as an instrument at the hands of the government,” prominent lawyer Amjad Pervaiz said. Referring to the Supreme Court’s judgment in Khawaja Saad Rafiq case wherein the apex court detected bias in NAB’s handling of political cases, Pervaiz said that the top court had already shed light on NAB’s performance and the government’s attempt to take credit for it is strange, to say the least.

“NAB is an investigating and prosecuting agency and the government’s attempt to take credit for its performance has opened up the space for politicians to take the plea of political victimisation before the court,” Pervaiz said.

“Report itself is an admission that NAB is working under the government; it has exposed the nexus between NAB and the government,” Imran Shafiq, a former special prosecutor of NAB, said. “It has put a question mark on the independence, impartiality and integrity of NAB.”

while explaining that NAB was an autonomous body, Shafiq said that the government had admitted through the report that NAB was a subordinate department of the government.

“If NAB doesn’t objects to its inclusion in the report then it can be said that NAB has also accepted the subordination,” Shafiq said, adding that if NAB denied and took a stance that its performance shouldn’t be taken as government’s performance then “the government has misled the people”.

“There appears to be some kind of dishonesty” as the government was itself telling the people that it, allegedly, was behind all NAB cases, Shafiq opined. Under section 33-D of NAB Ordinance, he added, the bureau submitted an annual report of its affairs to the president. “NAB’s performance can’t be linked with government,” he said.

Apparently, the addition of NAB performance in the government’s performance report contradicts the stance taken by the bureau and the government. NAB has often stated in its statements that “NAB has no affiliation with any party, individual or group”.

In fact, it is also stated in the government report that “NAB is making all-out efforts to ensure across-the-board accountability without any political motivation or influence”.

In the recent past, Information Minister Shibli Faraz, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood and Law Minister Farogh Naseem, among others, had also said that NAB was an independent institution and worked on its own without any interference from the government.

During the last two years, the government’s performance report read, the present chairman along with his team took concrete steps and initiated tangible actions to bring about the revival and rejuvenation of NAB by enhancing both the quality and quantity of manpower, improvement in operational strategy and strategic approach towards efficient handling the cases in hand, including the inherited huge backlog.

NAB’s spokesperson was asked to comment on the development and questions were sent to him. No reply was received till the filing of the story.

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