Across-the-board accountability: Will NAB chief reopen cases of those in power?

Bokhari will have to remove deputy chairman after taking charge.

ISLAMABAD:

The new National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chief will have to carefully navigate through political storms and pressures, as he takes charge amid controversies associated with the bureau’s role in ‘victimising’ the government’s opponents while fighting a legal battle to validate his appointment in the superior courts.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari said he would oversee the accountability process without discrimination. Various high-profile cases pending with accountability courts in and outside the country need his approval before they can be revived, said NAB officials who requested that their names be withheld.

The new chairman faces legal and administrative challenges, the foremost of which is fighting for his post since the opposition PML-N has challenged his nomination in the apex court.

Secondly, he has to develop a consensus on the new prosecutor general’s selection by taking President Asif Ali Zardari on board, considering outgoing Prosecutor General Irfan Qadir’s resignation is yet to be accepted, according to NAB officials.

The NAB chief will have to appoint his deputy after removing Javaid Zia Qazi and Deputy Prosecutor General Akbar Tarrar, whose contracts expired in April. Bokhari, in consultation with the prosecutor general, will appoint some nine directors general (DGs) to make the accountability bureau operational.

The DGs of all provincial headquarters will also be appointed. Currently, four important wings are functioning without DGs, namely operational, human resource, banking and awareness and prevention. Officers working on these posts have already completed their tenure or been given out-of-turn promotions by the law ministry.

New additional prosecutors general will be appointed to pursue cases in courts. NAB has not been able to take 1, 634 complaints to the courts since 2007, mainly because of a lack of prosecutors.

The newly appointed chairman will appoint 150 officers to support all the DGs to make the bureau offices operational. Currently, as many as 20 accountability courts are functioning under NAB, where over 456 cases have been pending since years, according to official statistics.

The retired admiral will have to revive cases against senior politicians and the president, which are still pending before various courts. NAB will reinitiate inquiries against 118 top politicians, including two former prime ministers, six incumbent and former chief ministers, 38 current and former MNAs, 12 sitting and former senators and 60 incumbent and former MPAs. Around 46 politicians are affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League, 29 belong to the Pakistan Peoples Party while 43 are members of other parties.

The new chairman has to approve 70 important inquiries against influential persons. The issue of audit objections may also be taken up once Bokhari convenes a board meeting after appointing officials.

NAB paid legal consultants Rs349.7 million in fees from 2003 to 2009, according to an internal audit report. Foreign law firms billed NAB Rs292 million for contesting cases abroad, including the high-profile money laundering case in Switzerland, but not a single penny has been recovered so far.

The bureau has investigated 700 to 800 cases since 2007 while 381 inquiries are ongoing. A total of 1, 147 inquiries were completed.

Over 220 high level corruption cases amounting to some Rs320 billion will be revived against civil and government officials in various trial courts.

Presently, only two senior law officers are supervising these cases, one of whom is Dr Asghar Rana whose contract will expire in November.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2011.