The Unaccountable

Following amendments to the NAB law, the dream of accountability of the powerful becomes increasingly elusive

Lahore: The dream people had of finally seeing the country’s powerful political, business and bureaucratic elite face accountability is fast diminishing, as one after the other, the members of the ‘troika’ have been awarded relief in the corruption cases against them. In fact, since the change of government in April this year, all the bigwigs of the political parties representing the incumbent federal government have been given relief in the assorted multi-billion rupee corruption cases filed against them.

The list of those who have redeemed their ‘honour’ — ie. the beneficiaries of the pardon — is very long. This is because one of the most important tasks the incumbent federal government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set itself and ‘achieved’ was to strip the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of several powers it hitherto held to investigate influential accused politicians as well as top bureaucrats.

After the controversial amendments in the NAB law, dozens of references in which the involved amount was less than Rs 500 million, have been returned by the accountability courts citing lack of pecuniary jurisdiction in the cases.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his son Hamza Shehbaz, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and former PM Yousaf Raza Gilani, former Chairman Senate, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Saleem Mandviwalla, etc. are among the beneficiaries whose cases were returned to NAB by the accountability courts after the amendments.

Ishaq Dar, senior leader and close relative of former PM Nawaz Sharif was an absconder from Pakistan, fleeing the many cases filed against him, but following the Sharif takeover, he returned to Pakistan and is now leading the country’s Finance Ministry. Similarly, Salman Shehbaz, the Premier’s second son, a proclaimed offender in two corruption references, one filed by NAB, and the other by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), involving assets beyond means, also returned to the country and drove straight to the PM’s House. He felt secure enough to do so because he had secured protective bail even before landing in Pakistan.

Special Prosecutor of the FIA in the Ramzan Sugar Mill case, Farooq Bajwa, told Bol News that Salman Shehbaz had been an absconder in the case, and now that he is back, once he surrenders before the trial court, the FIA will summon him to record his statement. He said Salman Shehbaz had served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the mill like his elder brother Hamza Shehbaz, and his role will be determined during the investigation.

Answering a question, the Prosecutor said that in their statements to the FIA, the employees of the Ramzan Sugar Mill had entirely blamed Hamza and Salman Shehbaz for the dozens of bank accounts that were opened in their names and in the names of other low-wage employees of the mill, in which Rs 16 billion were deposited by various people from 2008 till 2018. It is important to mention here that during those ten years, Shehbaz Sharif was serving as Chief Minister Punjab.

Earlier, a trial court had acquitted father and son, Shehbaz and Hamza Sharif, from the money-laundering case in which Salman was also a co-accused. Talking about the return of Salman Shehbaz, Khawaja Imran Nazir of the PML-N said he had left the country to avoid facing political victimisation during the PTI regime. “Who can stop him [Salman] from returning to the country? He has not done anything illegal and will respond to all the FIA’s queries when summoned,” said Nazir, adding that many politicians were put behind bars by Imran Khan on false allegations, and those cases were later thrown into the dustbin by the country’s superior courts.

Meanwhile, the former Special Prosecutor of the NAB and senior advocate Azhar Siddique claimed that the incumbent chief of the Bureau has a close affiliation with the PML-N due to which many influential accused have been getting relief in the corruption cases against them. “I was asked not to appear before the courts in corruption references and appeals even though I was the Prosecutor. This was the level of understanding between the NAB and the PML-N,” he stated. According to Siddique, the hope of accountability of the powerful people in this country is fast ebbing, and given that the powerful are being freed, petty thieves should also be freed from jails.

However, Siddique maintained he was very confident about the outcome of cases in the Supreme Court as the top court was hearing several petitions in which NAB amendments have been challenged. He said only the apex court can rescue the accountability process, otherwise it is doomed.