No need for new law if judges, generals’ accountability doesn’t take place: Rabbani

ISLAMABAD: The political parties’ failure to evolve a consensus on accountability of judges and generals on Thursday unleashed a debate in the Senate after the PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar termed the development a wilful attempt by the powerful military establishment to rewrite the civil-military relations to keep intact its unlimited powers.

As the debate raged in the House on state institutions and their role in the scheme of trichotomy of power, the senators wondered why the military and judiciary could not be made accountable through the proposed National Accountability Commission.

Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Thursday said that id under new accountability law, there was no provision of Ehtesab of judges and generals there was no need of it, adding that if it was necessary, some amendments could be made in the existing National Accountability Ordinance.

Senator Taj Haider said that in our country both the armed forces and masses were powerful. Looking at our history, we see that if the armed forces come to power, it is called martial law and if masses come to power, it is called democracy but it's also a controlled democracy.

Waving a copy of his party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s statement that there should be across-the-board accountability, Farhatullah Babar said he was in a fix why his party had to backtrack at the eleventh hour by agreeing military and judiciary should not be made accountable. Babar literally begged the chair to give him more time as he wanted to speak his heart out after the chair asked him to conclude his speech.

Talking on the way forward, he said that enforcing accountability seemed a distant goal, and in such a situation, he said  there was left only one option; tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Senator Babar said the central issue was the systematic and deliberate shifting of locus of power from Islamabad to Rawalpindi and worse still the new locus was not accountable. He said this phenomenon was summed up by former chief of army chief General Jehangir Karamat while commenting on the legal framework order (LFO) of General Pervez Musharraf, who had said: “LFO represents the long-standing desire of the military to re-write the civil-military equation on the terms of the military”.

“The situation is far worse than mere imbalance within the constitutional trichotomy of powers for which there are institutional mechanisms to address. The present situation is far worse than mere imbalance within the trichotomy.

“Today the state is like a vehicle where the person on the steering has no control over vital levers like the accelerator, brake and clutch. Sooner or later such a vehicle is fated to meet a disastrous accident,” Babar said.

Giving examples of lack of accountability, he said that Musharraf admitted in his book of having handed over hundreds of people captured to CIA and made millions of dollars but no questions asked. He pointed out that Musharraf admitted of a network of nuclear proliferation, which transferred several tons of nuclear material to Iran, Libya and North Korea but no investigation took place as who was involved in all this.

“Musharraf used to tell the world that Osama bin Laden had died of kidney ailment but OBL was found in a cantonment but no heads rolled. You, Mr chairman can stay here after what Musharraf said? No. You could have been somewhere else,” he contended.

The PPP senator said that it was true that political parties and judiciary were also responsible for the mess but added that both judiciary and political parties had made some amends. “While the judiciary had buried the concept of PCO judges the political parties had joined hands in the Charter of Democracy vowing never to invite intervention of undemocratic elements,” he added.

Babar said his heart was aching that forced him to speak up as he knew that he could not enforce accountability. As he finished his speech, Leader of Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan went to Babar and hugged him and patted him on his back. 

Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said that when other state institutions refused accountability, the Senate of Pakistan set an example of self-accountability by setting up an Ethics Committee of the House.

Senator Usman Kakar of the PkMAP said the transfer of power should be completely with the Parliament as it was a supreme body. He said that if military and judiciary are not made accountable, the very concept of accountability will be an exercise in futility.

Talking part in the debate, PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi said the only way forward to balance the power is that the judiciary must do justice. He said that democracy will not flourish if state institutions cross the ambit enshrined in the Constitution.

Mohsin Leghari, an independent senator, said that unless there was transparency and accountability, the dream to strengthen Parliament and other state institutions could not be materialised.

Col (R) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of the MQM-P said that political engineering was a big issue and “we should do away with it as it has never allowed the democratic system of the country to flourish besides weakening the political system”.

Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of Balochistan National Party-Mengal said that the appointment of army chief, naval chief, air chief, and the judges of apex court should be done through the Parliament.