Daily Times

The NAB chairman may well be a gentleman of the times. This, after all, is a post-truth world. Sadly, this is not the moment for flippancy. Not when Javed Iqbal, who happens to be a retired justice of the Supreme Court, has missed the mark so pointedly.

The accountability chief took notice of a two-year-old World Bank report that had resurfaced several months ago in the Urdu press. From there we arrive here: NAB all gung-ho to probe allegations that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was involved in money-laundering some $4.9 billion to India under the guise of remittance payments. Except that the World Bank data, by its own admission, was based on projected estimations as to what things might look like today had all those who migrated from India to Pakistan at the time of Partition been economic migrants. Most importantly, the report made no mention of black money. Nor did it name names.

Inevitably, the ruling PMLN is up in arms. It views the NAB misstep as the latest part of an orchestrated witch-hunt against Nawaz and the broader party; particularly given that the polls are looming larger by the day. Thus PM Abbasi has taken the matter to the National Assembly, calling for a parliamentary committee to be constituted to probe the probers.

The opposition’s response has been somewhat disappointing. The PPP disagrees in principle with summoning the NAB chairman before the House as this would set the unwelcome precedent of interfering in the anti-corruption watchdog’s affairs. Though it has agreed to hold intra-party consultations towards this end. The PTI, however, has categorically ruled out backing such a move given that this would be “tantamount to the murder of justice and accountability”. The joint opposition has a short memory. For it was only last year that the PPP-led Sindh Assembly adopted a resolution condemning what it termed NAB’s “biased policies” in arresting MPA and former provincial Information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on corruption.  Similarly, it was the same story when later that year the PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry expressed serious reservations over NAB’s prosecution department after the bureau lost its appeal before the Supreme Court that had sought a re-opening of the Rs1.2 billion Hudaibiya Paper Mills reference against the Sharif family.

To be sure, if the PMLN wants to win this round, it will have to take the highroad. One that focuses on the question of procedural reform. As any journalist worth his or her salt will confirm – it is imperative (where possible) to go to the original source. Thus it is hoped that a parliamentary committee is constituted and that Mr Iqbal is gently reminded of this; as well as of the need for a strong in-house mechanism that assumes the role of general overseer. One thing is clear: the so-called accountability drive has already turned into a bad joke — even before it got anywhere. *

Published in Daily Times, May 12^th 2018.