From blunder to howler

ISLAMABAD: If National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Tuesday’s press release was a blunder, the Bureau’s clarification issued on the subject on Wednesday is nothing less than a howler.

It’s unbelievable to know through the NAB’s latest clarification that the media report, on the basis of which the NAB chairman Tuesday initiated action against Nawaz Sharif for alleged money laundering of $4.9 billion to India, was published on February 1, 2018.

It means it took the NAB and its chairman almost 100 days to ponder over the said media report and then finally decide to get the issue verified besides making it public through an official press release. Interestingly the report became a joke within hours of the issuance of NAB’s press statement of Tuesday.

This fact speaks volumes about the incompetence of the country’s topmost anti-corruption body and its top management, which failed to ascertain the fakeness of the media report despite the passage of over three months.

The NAB clarification though insists that its Tuesday’s move was not aimed at hurting anybody, the Bureau or its chairman did not offer any explanation as to why on the basis of an unverified report the name of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif along with extremely serious allegation was made public.

Neither the Bureau nor its chairman offered any apology for what they did on Tuesday. Instead, they argued whatever they did was in line with the provisions of NAB law.

On Tuesday, the NAB press release boldly levelled the serious allegations of money laundering on Nawaz Sharif with a dangerous but clear mention of transfer of huge amount of foreign exchange to India. On Wednesday, in its clarification, the NAB referred to the media report as “alleged media report”.

The media report, which ended up bringing huge embarrassment for the NAB and its chairman, was an Urdu column published in a Islamabad based newspaper.

On Tuesday within hours after the NAB’s press release, the report of transfer of $4.9 billion to India by Nawaz Sharif was categorically rejected initially by the State Bank of Pakistan and later by the World Bank as well. However, still the NAB appears to have some faith in the “fake” report as it still asserts that it is in the process of verifying the “alleged media report”.

The World Bank, whose report “Migration and Remittance Book 2016” was quoted by the NAB as source of the column the Bureau had banked on, trashed the Bureau’s case by formally issuing a press release, which said, “In the past day, there have been media reports citing the World Bank’s Remittances and Migration Report of 2016. These media reports were incorrect. The World Bank’s Remittances and Migration Report is an effort by the World Bank to estimate migration and remittances numbers across the world. The report does not include any mention of money laundering nor does it name any individuals.”

Although the NAB in its Wednesday’s clarification maintained that its decision to verify the contents of the report is as per the provisions of the NAB law, it avoided to discuss why the Bureau was enthusiastic to make all these serious allegation public along with the name of former prime minister. Does the NAB law authorise NAB to make public such unauthentic reports or it was done only to vilify the former premier? There is also no explanation by the Bureau in its clarification if it makes public through official press release every complaint which is approved for verification.