Govt gives full marks to NAB in its two-year performance report

ISLAMABAD: PTI government’s two-year performance report presents NAB as the flawless anti-graft body, which has done miracles during this period and is working greatly beyond any political consideration.

Without reflecting on any of the concerns raised by the prime minister in public or in official meetings against the NAB working, the government in its performance report even goes to the extent of claiming that Bureau is not only making its mark felt at the international stage but is set to play a leading role in establishment of Anti-Corruption Agencies Network for Saarc countries.

While the prime minister has been saying that the NAB’s working has demotivated the business community and the civil bureaucracy, his government’s performance report stated the contrary, “Over the past one year, the Bureau has invigorated its energies for development of a corruption-free economy.”

The government report also backed the incumbent chairman and his working by stating, “During the last two years, the present chairman along with his team took concrete steps and initiated tangible actions to bring about the revival and rejuvenation of National Accountability Bureau by enhancing both the quality and quantity of manpower, improvement in operational strategy and strategic approach towards efficient handling the cases in hand including the inherited huge backlog.”

Without sharing the details, the government also claimed that the NAB has recovered more than Rs350 billion during the last two years. Direct recoveries, it claimed, were Rs28 billion while the indirect recoveries stood at Rs335 billion.

In a TV interview on Tuesday, the prime minister termed the NAB probe against Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar a “joke”. However, his government’s performance report said that the NAB is making all-out efforts to ensure across-the-board accountability without any political motivation or influence or compromising on quality and transparency.

Talking about the history of corruption and the anti-corruption laws introduced from time to time, the PTI government in its performance report refers to the promulgation of National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 by the Musharraf government as a “comprehensive anti-corruption regime”. Interestingly, Imran Khan in the past has spoken many times against NAB law and the Bureau’s use to victimise the opposition and for political engineering.

The government also gives the NAB the credit of ensuring objectivity and transparency in its inquiries and investigations proceedings. To improve the qualitative and quantitative performance of NAB, time limits have been fixed for completion of Compliant Verification (CV), Inquiries and Investigations and filing of references, the government report claimed.

The government report claimed that barring exceptions the maximum time from initiation to filing a reference is 10 months. This reflection of NAB as a perfect anti-corruption body in the government’s performance report, is just contrary to repeated rulings of the superior judiciary.

In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court had noted that NAB is certainly not serving the national interest, rather causing irretrievable harm to the country, nation and society in multiple ways. The court said the Bureau is being flagrantly used for political engineering, adding that discriminatory approach of NAB is also affecting its image and has shaken the faith of the people in its credibility. The court said the Bureau’s highhandedness and brazen disregard for human dignity has attracted ignominy and notoriety beyond our frontiers too.