Every law is for the civilians. Let me restate it, every law is just for the common civilians. Thieves of pennies spend years in jail while merchants of the national interests enjoy the heavens of the Middle East and the West. Plea bargains at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is the safe way out for corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Our military officers and judges — all those who make the decisions about the fate of the nation and give judgements on the politically instigated cases are seemingly beyond the law. No law can cage the business mafias. Keeping in view the lacunas in the NAB law, a parliamentary committee is discussing amendments in the law to replace the NAB law with the new one — the National Accountability Commission. On Wednesday October 4, 2017, the Committee will discuss a proposal from Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar to bring the military officers and judges into the ambit of the new NAB Law. Senator Farhatullah Babar’s proposal is the representative endorsement of all the socio-political voices being raised from all corners of the country for long. I have also mentioned several times in my opinion pieces that we need to include all state institutions and business tycoons in the accountability process without any discrimination of their social and professional status. Not only four or five politicians, we need to ‘minus’ several hundred ‘giants’ from different sectors and segments of society if we really want to increase out socio-political and economic growth. It is indeed a commendable step for the government and the chair of the parliamentary committee on the new NAB law, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid who indicated the last Friday, that they would take up the Senator Farhatullah Babar’s proposal. Hopefully, the Senator’s proposal would be thoroughly discussed and properly included into the new legal framework. After the National Accountability Bureau was established in 1999, Gen Musharraf opened the door of accountability of politicians and civil bureaucracy but he intentionally kept the Generals and Judges out of the accountability mechanism It would be historic step, and I believe that it should have been taken long before. The new legal framework for accountability shall be the same for all the people of Pakistan whether they are the ‘bloody civilians’ or the privileged ones from the military or judiciary. The new accountability process shall be public and transparent, and it should be extended to the whole country. The proposed mechanism shall be overlooked by an inclusive parliamentary committee comprising of parliamentarians of repute from both Houses — the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan. The application of the new legal framework for accountability shall be defined within the law, and it should be clear, transparent and stringent enough to serve the actual objectives. All eyes are on the Committee, and waiting for the draft to be finalised. Let’s hope it would be done sooner rather than later to make the common people’s dreams come true. For years, the general public in Pakistan has been ‘daydreaming’ to see the corrupt mafia in business and trade, bureaucracy, politics, judiciary and army nabbed, penalised and castigated according for their misdeeds. After the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established in 1999, General Pervez Musharraf opened the door of accountability of politicians and civil bureaucracy but he intentionally kept the Generals and Judges out of the accountability mechanism. At that time, the plea was that both state institutions have their own accountability mechanism. Time has vividly and evidently proved that neither the NAB had been adequately successful in nabbing the civil bureaucracy and politicians nor had the internal accountability mechanisms of the judiciary and the army proved to be instrumental in taking the corrupt Generals and Judges to task. Although, NAB successfully brought hundreds of the corruption cases to the public and media and recovered billions of rupees, even then its performance has not been up to the expectations of the people of the republic. What to say about the internal accountability mechanisms of judiciary and army that never unfolded any case of corruption against any Judge or a General. If something corrupt and shady surfaced unexpectedly in the media, the two institutions immediately manage to wipe it off quite successfully. Many examples can be quoted. The recent one is that only the politicians are facing the brunt of the ‘Panama Leaks’ while the untouchable sacred cows in the aforementioned two state institutions are enjoying ‘immunity’. Perhaps, all immunity against all misdeeds is reserved for the Generals and Judges. Only a few Generals decide about the fate of the nation, and their decisions have far reaching consequences for the motherland. Their decisions also impact the entire armed forces, mostly in a negative way. Likewise, the decisions and rulings of some Judges based on the ‘law of necessity’ or otherwise have created an anarchic situation in the country. For decades, the public in Pakistan have believed in hiring judges instead of lawyers. This perception or general belief is quite close to the realities on ground that we cannot deny. The decisions in the political cases, right from former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the recently ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, reflect the hidden nexus of two forces that is so obvious now and literally termed as beyond the law. Every nexus, either the business and politics or any of the two state institutions, is as harmful for national integrity and democratic growth as anything else. Some term it the enemy within. We need to daringly talk about it, identify it, and eliminate all sorts of nexuses from our society. This would certainly lead us to a society that would have no exploitation and corruption. The writer is an Islamabad-based policy advocacy, strategic communication and outreach expert. He can be reached at devcom.pakistan@gmail.com. He tweets @EmmayeSyed Published in Daily Times, October 3rd 2017.