Accountability in the dock

Giving a detailed verdict in the case of land acquisition by MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq and his brother, a two-member Supreme Court bench has delivered a damning verdict on NAB and the manner in which it proceeds. The judgment states that while NAB may attempt to show its neutrality, the reality is that it is victimizing political opponents, while letting persons who are supporters of the government off the hook. The SC notes that tragically this has been the case with all accountability bodies set up in the country and that in the 72 years since the country's inception the justice that people deserve has not been received by them because of political motivations and the use of NAB to serve these.

More significantly, we are reminded of the first tenet of justice – that a person is considered innocent until found guilty. Needless to say, arrest and detention should only be a last resort and not a common practice. The bench has also observed that detention is being used by NAB to malign the reputation of persons it targets and also their families. There is no need to list the number of people who have had the ignominy of being paraded as criminals by NAB, their families hounded and they themselves having had to suffer severe humiliation. There have been many who have had to endure this. We say once again: there must always be a rather thick line between accountability and political victimization.

And, as per the SC's observations, the role of the judicial system is to ensure that courts also exhibit a uniform stance while meting out justice. This has been a long and rather painful saga – that of NAB doing everything other than what it's technically supposed to. For most legal experts and political observers, there is little doubt left that NAB has become a weapon simply to be used against those that are to be penalised (the reasons for that vary and are also tragic). There are multiple cases that reveal this reality. These include cases not only against politicians but also media house owners, business tycoons and others. The observations made by the SC are extremely significant in our current setup. There has never been any doubt that we need more accountability. But the manner in which NAB is going about this task has simply turned the whole matter into a kind of farce which is visible even to persons who have no legal expertise.