PTI joins powers of status quo

 News Analysis

ISLAMABAD: The resignation of DG KP Ehtesab Commission Lt Gen (retd) M Hamid Khan, against the PTI government’s bid to weaken the institution, has caused a serious dent to the campaign for a trustworthy and independent anti-corruption body in the country.

The PTI, which has been absence of an independent accountability system, has itself seriously damaged the cause of accountability by weakening the KP’s own anti-corruption body which, till recently, was referred to as a feather in the PTI’s hat.

This development has helped the status quo powers who were already not keen to introduce an independent accountability system for across-the-board accountability.Setting up an independent Ehtesab Commission under a reputed retired general in the KP province by the PTI was a great initiative but in an year’s time despite tall claims, the KP government has proved that it is no different from the PPP and PML-N.

When recently the Sindh government resisted the federal agencies’ crackdown against the corrupt elements in the province, particularly those belonging to the PPP, the PTI was in the forefront, criticising the Sindh CM’s demand that such arrests should be made only after the consent of the provincial chief executive.

Ironically, today the PTI government in KP is doing the same, which resulted in the resignation of the DG KP Ehtesab Commission.Only a few months back, Imran Khan was quoted as saying that it took his government two years to set up an independent KP Ehtesab Commission, which was supported by all the parties in the KP Assembly. “Now these parties are trying to resist the steps it is taking because they were not prepared for substantive accountability. A PTI minister and a PTI MPA’s father were the first to be arrested by it,” he said in October last year. Today, he appears to have surrendered to the forces of status quo.

Already recently, the campaign for an independent and across-the-board accountability system has been seriously jolted by the PML-N’s decision to slow down the revision of NAB law, fearing that its effort might not be appreciated in the present political environment.

“We feel that politically the timing right now is not fit for a change in the NAB law,” a key government source, involved in the process, told The News. He explained that the technical committee has completed its job yet the recent allegations of Muk Muka against the government have dampened the government’s already belated move to improve the anti-corruption official mechanism for across-the-board accountability.

For the last few years, the PTI has been consistently questioning the accountability drive under the previous PPP as well as the present PML-N regimes and termed it a Muk Muka between the two parties. However, the issue recently made headlines when the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan used the same term about the alleged benefits that the Leader of the Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah is getting from the PML-N government.

Only a few months back, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had assigned his top legal team to review the NAB Ordinance and suggest changes in the present law with the purpose of setting up an independent accountability commission to check corruption and misuse of power.

The committee of legal experts associated with the government includes Zahid Hamid, Khawaja Zaheer, Ashtar Ausaf, Salman Aslam Butt and Barrister Zafarullah Khan. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was assigned to lead the job of proposing amendments to the NAB Ordinance.

The committee, the sources said, has almost completed its technical work but has now gone slow for pure political reasons and in view of the apprehensions that the opposition, particularly the PTI, will question the government’s “genuineness” and may again term it a Muk Muka between the PPP and PML-N.

The technical committee in its recommendations has sought the powers of the chairman NAB diluted to get the investigation and prosecution jobs under the NAB separated. An option to convert the NAB into a commission where instead of one person (chairman NAB), a set of credible persons should be authorised to take key decisions, is also recommended.

Such a commission could comprise men of integrity from the judiciary, civil bureaucracy, civil society, etc. According to another option, there was the consideration of setting up a parliamentary oversight committee to oversee the working of NAB.

Despite its 2013 election promises and the past pledges, the PML-N government has so far failed to set up a credible accountability system to fix looters and plunderers of the national wealth. During the last PPP government, the PML-N had been severely criticising the alleged corruption of the government besides showing the resolve to take the corrupt to task when it came to power.

However, during the last two-and-a-half years, accountability remains low on the list of priorities of the Nawaz Sharif government whereas the PPP’s Sindh government continues to be known more for its corruption and bad governance than anything else.

The PPP and PML had agreed in the Charter of Democracy, signed in early 2007, to set up an independent accountability commission to ensure anacross-the-board accountability. During the PPP’s rule, the two parties simply never agreed to any draft law for the creation of such a commission.