A-Grade for character assassination, F for collecting evidence
Keeping in view the performance of NAB and FIA one is forced to conclude that the accountability bodies in this country are partial, prejudiced and incompetent. Over the past two decades the NAB in particular has allowed itself to be used as a pliable instrument by those who rule. It appears that the accountability body is programmed to discover corruption only in the opposition’s ranks. Under Pervez Musharraf the NAB was mandated to arrest the corrupt politicians and give them the option of joining the King’s party and becoming ministers or languishing in jail. Before 2018 elections a truck load of similar figures was made to change loyalties overnight and join the PTI which could not have formed government without them.
The accountability bodies focus more on torturing and scandalizing politicians than on collecting legally admissible evidence and preparing fool proof cases. This is what happened in the case of PPP’s Dr Asim Hussain and this is what is happening to PMLN’s Shahbaz Sharif who was remanded to NAB custody a fourth time on Saturday. Dr Aim Hussain was arrested by the Rangers in August 2015 who kept him in custody for 90 days. Failing to get any solid evidence they handed him over to police for further investigation. After more than three years not an iota of solid evidence could be gathered against the much maligned politician. This led the court to allow Dr Hussain to travel abroad for medical treatment.
The zeal to scandalize Nawaz Sharif led the present NAB chief to make a laughing stock of himself by claiming that former PM had laundered $4.9 billions to India. Instead of collecting irrefutable evidence and preparing strong cases the overzealous DG NAB Punjab has set the record of putting up appearance on four TV channels in a single day. Does his job description also include conducting public campaign against politicians? NAB’s incompetence has reached such proportions that the CJP was forced to remark that NAB is defaming judiciary by preparing weak cases that allow criminals to escape while the judges are held responsible for letting them off the hook.
