A mockery of fair play?
The cat and mouse game played out by the NAB (National Accountability Bureau) at the house of leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore on Tuesday was indeed reprehensible. Its sleuths, unsuccessful in arresting the former chief minister of Punjab, made a further mockery of the already tarnished accountability process.
Sharif is no absconder; he had returned voluntarily to Pakistan two months back from London. Since then he has already appeared once at NAB headquarters in Lahore to answer questions about his assets within and outside Pakistan.
It seems the hyperactive special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) Shehzad Akbar is tasked with the sole purpose of hounding the opposition. Since his return, Sharif has become the flavour of the month for the PTI government’s accountability drive.
This relentless pursuit is termed by the opposition as a witch-hunt and a media trial. Akbar has held two pressers in the past few weeks levelling serious charges of corruption against the leader of the opposition.
According to the accountability czar, Shahbaz and his progenies are guilty of amassing a humungous sum of over Rs 550 billion through illicit means. Sharif however claims he has all the documentary proofs to refute alleged corrupt practices of the family.
The former chief minister is a cancer survivor. Hence, he asserts that he is likely to be exposed to the coronavirus by appearing at NAB headquarters if he is not extra careful. Since his return, Sharif has by and large confined himself to his house.
The nexus between the government and the accountability watchdog is an open secret. Whatever fig leaf of plausibility was there has been destroyed by a combination of factors
He has been criticised in the media for not attending the special NA session held recently to discuss Covid-19 that was summoned on his initiative. Even some of PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) stalwarts are unhappy about their leader’s consistent hibernation and aloofness.
Of course, Sharif should answer for all corruption charges leveled against him. But at the same time, he is entitled to a fair trial. But the manner in which NAB operates hardly comes under the definition of a ‘fair trial’.
In this case when the former chief minister had sent a written response to the accountability watchdog’s latest queries and was also willing to face his interrogators on Skype, why the urge to arrest him, come what may?
Shahbaz was previously arrested in the Ashiyana Housing scheme case in October 2018 and after being incarcerated for 133 days was released on bail in February 2019 by the Lahore high court. The court, while rejecting charges against Sharif in its detailed judgement, admonished NAB for leveling nebulous allegations against him.
Not discouraged by this strong denouement, fresh cases were instituted against Sharif. It seems that SAPM Shahzad Akbar’s job description is to harass whomsoever the state desires.
Mr Akbar should face a little bit of accountability of his own. How much looted money has the ARU (Assets Recovery Unit) under him recovered since it was established in September 2018?
The prime minister, on numerous occasions, has unequivocally declared that he wants to cleanse the body politic of corruption as this is the corner stone of PTI’s manifesto. But unfortunately, the whole process is largely perceived to be opposition specific.
That is why it has little credibility. Nor will it have any under the present dispensation. Establishing an across the board and transparent mechanism has almost become a cliché that all politicians use whether in the government or in the opposition.
Nawaz Sharif, when he was leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, shunned moves by then Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to change the one-sided accountability law. Once being elected prime minister for a third time, him along with his party men, did not even move a finger to introduce a new consensual accountability law.
Of course, Sharif’s logic was simple: keep the law on the statute books lest there is need to use it against the opposition. After all, the notorious ‘Ethesab Bureau’ (accountability bureau), established during his second tenure as prime minister and headed by his crony senator Saifur Rehman, relentlessly pursued cases against opposition politicians, especially the PPP leadership.
One of the most famous of these cases was that of SGC and Cotecna in which Benazir as prime minister and her spouse were accused of receiving kickbacks from the Swiss custom assessment company.
When the present government spokespersons claim that they have nothing to with NAB and thatiIt is an independent body whose present head justice (retired) Javed Iqbal was appointed by then Prime Minister Sharif and president Zardari after mutual consultation, technically they are right.
Nonetheless, tall claims that NAB is an independent entity has little credibility. The nexus between the government and the accountability watchdog is an open secret. Whatever fig leaf of plausibility was there has been destroyed by a combination of factors.
Shahzad Akbar makes no bones about his almost quixotic pursuit of the opposition in his frequent utterances. His narrative is buttressed by various minsters and spokespersons.
Unfortunately, the level of debate is low and venomous with copious use of incendiary language. The last straw is Railways minister Sheikh Rashid’s narrative bordering on the absurd.
He has gained notoriety for his acerbic comments against the opposition. His prophecy during Ramzan that after Eid, “Tarzan will be in full swing” proved to be ominous.
The modus operandi of the government in its single-minded obsession with so-called accountability is shoddy as well. A case in point is the hearing by a full court bench of the apex court reference against Supreme Court judge Qazi Faiz Isa for allegedly having assets beyond means, instituted by President Alvi in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
During a recent hearing, one of the members of the bench, justice Muneeb Akhtar pointedly asked the government’s counsel Farogh Naseem to identify the ‘bright light’ that came up with the idea of filing a (flawed) reference against a superior court judge. He further remarked that that the said person made a serious error of judgment.
The gamut of accountability, apart from bad faith, smacks of incompetence on part of the government. The urge to victimize is so strong that professionalism (that is in any case lacking) is thrown to the winds.
Largely owing to this attitude some observers compare NAB to a dry-cleaning machine. Most high-profile politicians ultimately are granted bail from the high courts. Usually it is the end of their ordeal.
But Shahbaz Sharif who has never hidden his pro-establishment moorings is perhaps considered as a dangerman. Hence cases against him have to be taken to their logical conclusion.
If he is unable to give convincing answers to various allegations against him- no matter how frivolous they may look- his artfully created brand as a clean politician (if there is such a thing) will be inexorably tarnished.
