Daily Times

Another well-commended move by the PTI government. Earlier in the year, PM Khan had taken a bold decision to share the judgement of arbitration between Broadsheet and Pakistan with his countrymen despite it being a scathing indictment of the accountability watchdog. Though the government’s constitution of a committee to deal with a series of shoddy contracts and incompetent decision-making gravely aggravated its discord with the opposition, it remained steadfast. No political pressure could dent its resolve to find the best line of action. After all, the sordid saga had seen a bunch of monies sitting in London milking the national kitty to the tune of 30 million USD. All this has gone down the drain; without the Broadsheet sending back even a penny of the looted wealth.

The transparency drive continues. The government has again taken a welcome step in making public the report of the Broadsheet commission. Given the very harsh remarks against the bureaucracy’s noncooperation that “withdrew into its shell like a threatened snail,” and “would have made Gandhi proud,” there must have been immense pressure on Islamabad to sit on the findings. While Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh did mention NAB’s cooperation, he lambasted the government institutions for their blatant ignorance of the international law, which had “caused dishonour and monetary loss.” This sheer incompetence, laced with political expediency, was on full display at the arbitration hearing. Therein, a former NAB chairman, claimed that the commission contract only entailed Broadsheet’s work outside of Pakistan.

Now that the facts are out in the open, no stone should be left unturned in ascertaining why those hired to serve the interests of Pakistan prioritised their selfish designs to hide or misplace the relevant records. Whether it was due to the corruption of those sitting in the driver’s seat today or hiding their retired colleagues’ misdoings, every dirty reality should be pursued. The commission is spot-on in identifying the political pressures that make the authorities dance to their tune. Even the Broadsheet contract was tainted with the agendas of those using evidence to buy allegiance while choosing to abdicate their responsibility towards the masses. The opposition leaders crying of witchhunt had spent an entire decade dedicated to tit-for-tat incarceration of each other using the fables of corruption. Now that mountains of hard-hitting evidence they had gathered themselves have resurfaced to bite them, there seems a never-ending clamour over the nitty-gritties.

Thankfully, the commission has not hesitated to name-and-shame the “criminal liability” of former NAB Chairman Chaudhry Qamar Zaman and his higher-ups. Those facilitating the onset of the watchdog’s darkest era– between 2011 and 2017–(half-hearted prosecution of cases involving illicit foreign assets; non-filing of counter-appeals; concealment of records that could overturn acquittals) should be made an example of. No one can be allowed to choreograph a confusing farce of accountability.

The skeletons hidden in the Broadsheet cupboard are out in the open. It remains to be seen how the state would take the black sheep to task. No matter how loud, mere claims won’t bring the laundered money back to the Mothership. *