Following the arrest of a colleague, Ahad Cheema, by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) a section of Pakistan Administrative Service officers in Punjab, led by a clique close to the provincial power centre, have been in protest mode. They announced a day-long strike (observed only partially), put up banners in public places proclaiming Cheema's innocence, called on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to seek his support (available without asking), and last Saturday held a meeting to decide future course of action. Although attended by the Additional Chief Secretary and some other senior officers, it was a thinly attended affair and ended without reaching a consensus on what to do next. The Punjab Civil Service officers had distanced themselves from any protest plan.
The key allegation against the officer in question is that during his previous stint as director general of the Lahore Development Authority he had illegally cancelled contract of a low-cost housing scheme, Ashiana-e-Iqbal, awarded to a successful bidder, M/S Chaudhry Latif and Sons, to hand it to Bismillah Engineering, a C class company with a dubious financial status - worth only Rs 150 million for a Rs 14 billion contract! No wonder the scheme initiated in 2011, never got off the ground, robbing thousands of families of their hard earned money and the dream to have a house of their own. Notably, Bismillah Engineering is a subsidiary of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, reportedly owned by a federal minister.
This is not the first time a civil servant has been arrested on a corruption charge. There have been numerous such cases in the past. The Ehtesab Bureau in a previous Nawaz League government nabbed several senior bureaucrats on corruption allegations, including commerce secretary under Benazir Bhutto's government, Salman Farooqui; her principal secretary, Ahmad Sadiq; and chairman of the Capital Development Authority, Zafar Iqbal. But no one lifted a finger then. So what is different now? A lot. It turns out that Cheema is one of Punjab Chief Minister's blue-eyed boys. The day after his arrest, he was promoted from grade-19 to 20 although as per rules, a civil servant under investigation for wrongdoing is normally made officer on special duty (with nothing special to do) rather than rewarded with promotion. His detention for questioning has sent alarm bells ringing in various directions. The other boys and their political boss have their own worries about the ongoing NAB investigations into the murky affairs of 56 public limited companies established by the Punjab government.
No surprise then that those up in arms against the anti-corruption watchdog are not only a privileged class of bureaucrats but also the ruling party leaders. Soon after the officer was taken into custody Punjab cabinet held a special meeting, chaired by the Chief Minister, expressing "deep concern" over his arrest terming it "unwarranted and illegal." Oddly enough, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal also jumped into the fray criticizing NAB for its action. And on Wednesday, (yesterday) the Punjab Assembly adopted a resolution - introduced, of course, by the CM's close confidante Law Minister Rana Sanaullah - also showing "deep concern" on the issue. The resolution went on to call it a violation of "fundamental human rights and as being against human dignity" asking the federal government to take up the matter in the National Assembly and amend the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, to stop exercise of "illegal powers" by NAB; in other words, to clip its wings.
Which part of it was illegal or against human dignity is hard to see, considering that the officer was apprehended after he failed to appear before a Combined Investigation Team probing the corruption scam. According to NAB, it is in possession of sufficient evidence to prove the involvement of the accused in the commission of offenses as defined under section 9(a) and Schedule of the NAB Ordinance. As for the manner of his arrest, it was not any different from the way some high profile persons in Sindh, like Dr Asim Hussain and Sharjeel Memon, were taken into custody. The cause of the Punjab government's angst, though, is all too obvious. About five weeks ago, Shahbaz Sharif was also summoned by NAB in connection with an inquiry into the same housing society scandal, saying prima facie he being the Punjab Chief Minister ordered the "cancellation of award of contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal to successful bidder M/s Ch Latif and Sons, leading to award of contract to M/S Lahore Casa Developers (JV), a proxy of M/S Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which resulted into a loss of Rs 193 million approximately."
That annoyed the Punjab CM to no end. After recording his statement he called a news conference where he vented is anger at NAB, accusing it of initiating an ill-intentioned inquiry to sully his reputation, and its investigators of having become collaborators of the PTI and PPP. "Duplicity in the application of accountability law will not be accepted," he had thundered. And taking a leaf out of his older brother, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif's book of defiance against institutional accountability, he also vowed to approach the "public court" if others involved in mega corruption cases were not summoned by the accountability watchdog. These assertions make little sense first, because NAB is a constitutional body, hence, threats to obstruct its accountability process amounts to disobeying the law. Second, in any just system no accused has the right to make their compliance with investigations conditional in any way. The Sharifs, though, care little about laws, democratic principles and values. The ruling party's unprecedented reaction to a grade-19 officer's arrest explains what drove senior bureaucrats' rebellion against the system which, under normal circumstances, should have invited punitive action from the government rather than its full support. And of course it tells us all involved have things to hide. No?
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