NAB has filed a list of cases against 150 influential people, including political leaders, bureaucrats and businessmen. The list reads like a who’s who of these three categories of the country’s rich and high and mighty. The politicians named include the Sharifs, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, former president Asif Zardari, former prime ministers Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former chief minister Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raisani, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao, former information minister Firdaus Ashiq Awan, former information secretary and ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, and former top bureaucrats and prominent industrialists. Out of the 150, inquiries are only being conducted in 22, actual investigations have been launched into 13, and references have been filed in just 15 of these cases. Meanwhile, with the release of the list, NAB would have you believe that they have completed investigations and established guilt, and are only moments away from hauling away the accused in handcuffs.In fact, one of the main reasons why NAB’s list of pending cases is so long is precisely because corruption has become a political trope in our lexicon, a generic allegation with which to smear political opponents. The selective use of corruption allegations means that the real culprits get away. Everybody knows how large a role corruption plays in the articulation of our politics and distortion of our policy environment, but the only place where the allegations get to stick is in the public perception, rarely ever in a court of law. By not being able to solve the cases before it, NAB proves that corruption is little more than a red herring in our society, used to malign and victimise political opponents.However, the point to be made and made strongly is that when NAB was set up, its primary purpose, as stated at the time, was to deter corruption. But deterrence can only be established if justice is delivered, the due process of law followed, and penalties awarded where guilt is determined. This has not happened over a very long period of time, essentially defeating the purpose behind establishing NAB. In addition, the fact that many originally accused got away by paying out money in plea bargain arrangements also sends out a mixed message. Unfortunately, governance and the lack of checks on balances on it is such in Pakistan, that when one hears of mega corruption scandals, one is wont to believe that they exist. And they do. But with our track record of following investigations, it seems that the worst offenders routinely get away because of the incompetence of NAB in either proving their case, or in remaining aloof of political spats. Accountability as a national endeavour has suffered a loss of credibility precisely because of such factors. When NAB is unable to prove a case in court despite the passage of years, the politicians’ defence assumes near verity. The current focus on NAB and corruption in the body politic is believed by some to be driven by the military establishment, keen to clean up the Augean stables of corruption and embezzlement of public resources, some of which are allegedly finding their way to criminal and terrorist gangs.
pk.shafaqna.com
