Accountability issues

One thing we should have learnt is that no law on accountability will be effective until supported by all parties.

The question of accountability has always been a rather delicate issue in our society. This is hardly surprising, given the manner in which laws concerning it have been misused in the past to settle political scores or stage vendettas against opponents. This has happened repeatedly since the 1990s and is one of the reasons why we have struggled to impose any degree of control on political wrongdoing. Accountability has been used as revenge.

The proposed accountability law tabled by the government on October 8 — after the National Assembly’s standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs had spent years pondering over the clauses of the law — appeared to take the opposition by surprise. The bill tabled by the law minister is intended to replace the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, and enact a new law to take the place of the legislation put in place under General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s rule. One of its more contentious provisions is that graft cases older than 10 years cannot be reopened. This clause can have far-reaching consequences. Despite attempts to defend it, the law came under vehement opposition from both the PML-N and the ANP, a government ally. Opposition parties have long sought the setting up of an accountability commission to look into corruption cases and this was discussed at the standing committee during its deliberations on the matter.

One thing that we should have learnt by now is that no law on accountability will be effective until it is supported by all parties. It is, therefore, essential that the opposition be taken into confidence and any law that is passed is agreed upon by mutual consent, so that a move can be made towards truly imposing the checks and balances we need in order to control corruption. We will see only failure if any effort is made to push through a controversial accountability law without first working to ensure that everyone is in agreement on its essential content and the provisions it lays down.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2012.