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WEEKLY
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| NAB says lists are ok, as per files |
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has dismissed the outrage of a few NRO beneficiaries, who figured in its list, saying that it strictly followed its files and did not add any name on its own.
NAB Chairman Navid Ahsan, who is a retired top bureaucrat, continues to maintain a low profile and was not as usual available to answer the questions. However, a NAB official told The News on condition of anonymity that the NAB record could be verified by anybody any time that would establish without doubt the authenticity of its lists, handed over to the federal Law Ministry.
“We have nothing to fall back by furnishing any wrong information as we are in no secure position to bear the wrath of the high and mighty because of our precarious state. The present government has never attached any importance to the NAB but rather wants its abolition. Given this state, we have to be extra careful than we were while preparing the list,” the official said.
He said the NAB did the job that the government assigned to it. “We were asked to list the names of the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and we did that without any manipulation,” he maintained.
To a question, the official said that the government did not ask the NAB to amend its list. “We named 248 individuals whose corruption cases were scrapped under the NRO. Question of deleting or adding any name to this list by any other government department did not arise even if some highly placed persons would have wanted so. Had it been done by somebody, we would have corrected it publicly.”
He said if someone whose name appeared in the NAB list went to the court claiming that he had been wrongly mentioned in it, the NAB would prove its stand correct. The NAB, which has been highly demoralised and incapacitated due to a massive cut in its annual budget that led to its colossal downsizing was buoyed up though for the time being over the release of the list, another official said.
The NAB’s operations have been hugely slashed due to the shortage of funds. The federal government provides it funds on quarterly basis, which are not enough for much of its work that has as a result been greatly reduced. In addition to it, there is fear of its winding up any time to be replaced by the new toothless accountability commission.
The official said that there was great commotion and turbulence in the NAB when the NRO was promulgated as a large number of cases, involving billions of corruption money, were thrown away with the single stroke of pen.
He said that as it was clear the NAB only dealt with the suits falling under Section 7 of the NRO while it had nothing to do with the criminal cases covered by Section 2. Therefore, he said, the NAB did not have the record of the second category of cases, which was maintained by provincial governments.
The official said in its present state the NAB was not in a position keeping in view its funds, staff etc, to pursue any number of reopened cases, quashed under the NRO. He said if the government wanted the NAB to pursue the cases, if revived, it would have to provide adequate funds to the organization so that it might have sufficient qualified manpower and could engage lawyers.
However, the official said that the NAB would implement any direction and ruling of the Supreme Court about the fate of the NRO. He said that on its own the NAB would not seek revival of any case and added that it was clear that the government also did not want any such reopening.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
