Anti-corruption: Legal loophole may allow accused to flee abroad

The accountability watchdog has not authorised an inquiry since July this year.

LAHORE: A legal lacuna may allow a number of corrupt officials to flee the country because the NAB, being dysfunctional since July this year, is unable to put the names of the accused on the exit control list (ECL), officials told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has effectively become dysfunctional since a Supreme Court verdict announced on June 10 which reads: “…For what has been discussed above the federal government is directed to fill the vacant office of the chairman NAB and the Prosecutor General NAB within one month of announcement of this judgment positively failing which respondent No 5 i.e Deputy Chairman NAB shall ipso facto and without further ado stand denuded of his authority to continue exercising the delegated powers of chairman NAB and performing any other function not conferred upon him by the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999. If in such an eventuality the NAB practically ceases to exist or function under the NAO 1999 then the blame for the same shall rest squarely upon the shoulders of the federal government .This constitution petition is disposed of with the directions issued and the observations made above.”

The government, officials said, failed to fill two important posts in NAB – the corruption watchdog is without a chairman and prosecutor-general despite the ending of a deadline fixed by the Supreme Court regarding the filling of these posts till July 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th,  2011.