The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has authorised the initiation of inquiries, complaint verifications and investigations against 11 persons, including a former federal minister, a Sindh education minister, and former senior civil aviation officials.The decisions were taken at the bureau’s executive board meeting presided over by NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry. The board authorised an inquiry against Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan, former federal minister for communications, and his wife, former MNA Asma Alamgir, for allegedly accumulating assets beyond their known sources of income. The bureau also authorised another inquiry against former Sindh minister for education. Pir Mazharul Haq and others over illegal appointments of 13,000 teachers, causing an estimated loss of Rs4 billion to Rs6 billion to the national exchequer. An inquiry will be initiated against former Balochistan excise and taxation minister Muhammad Amin Umrani for accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income. Nobody can accuse NAB of fishing for minnows, as some of the names on the list of people and agencies to be investigated are very big fish indeed. A former education minister of Sindh (and his ‘accomplices’) is there, as is a former federal communications minister and the former excise and taxation minister of Balochistan. Whilst we have to welcome the fact that many are to be investigated, we must also caution against NAB running away with itself and embarking on a witch hunt, especially if it only focuses on investigating people affiliated to a particular political party. With extraordinary powers come extraordinary responsibilities. If anybody is to be prosecuted, then it has to be against irrefutable evidence properly presented before the courts. Above all, NAB itself has to be above political manipulation, difficult in a country where the rigging of public institutions to suit political ends is commonplace. A number of comfortable retirements are about to be interrupted.
pk.shafaqna.com
