Not surprisingly, the Upper House of Parliament, the Senate, before it was adjourned sine die on Friday, had unanimously adopted a resolution to disband the National Accountability Bureau. Earlier, PPP Senator Safdar Abbassi had moved a privilege motion that he was manhandled by officials of NAB in Rawalpindi.
Chairman of the house privilege committee Tahir Hussain Mashhadi indicated that he would call NAB Chairman on Monday to inquire about the complaints of misbehaviour against NAB officials
It may be recalled that both mainstream political parties of the country, the Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N), have already expressed their disdain and strong opposition to NAB for accountability of politicians and corrupt civilians.
Under the so-called 'Charter of Democracy' (COD), the two ruling coalition parties are committed to replace NAB with a 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' to reinvent a new political and social order. The COD, which is the political and administrative agenda of the coalition government, says:
" . (a) Truth and Reconciliation Commission be established to acknowledge victims of torture, imprisonment, state-sponsored persecution, targeted legislation, and politically motivated accountability. The commission will also examine and report its findings on military coups and civil removals of governments from 1996.
(b) A commission shall also examine and identify the causes of and fix responsibility and make recommendations in the light thereof for incidences such as Kargil.
(c) Accountability of NAB and other Ehtesab operators to identify and hold accountable abuse of office by NAB operators through purgery and perversion of justice and violation of human rights since its establishment.
(d) To replace politically motivated NAB with an independent accountability commission, whose chairman shall be nominated by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of opposition and confirmed by a joint parliamentary committee with 50 percent members from treasury benches and remaining 50 percent from opposition parties in same manner as appointment of judges through transparent public hearing. The confirmed nominee shall meet the standard of political impartiality, judicial propriety, moderate views expressed through his judgements and would have not dealt."
Political observers say that the history of Pakistan's anti-corruption efforts shows a number of legislative and administrative measures, leading to creation of anti-corruption agencies in provinces to counter corruption and reduce abuse of official authority.
They say that these measures could have prevented the rise of corruption to quite an extent, but most of these initiatives were undertaken merely for political mileage and, consequently, failed not only to produce any definite, tangible outcomes but also fell short of creating any element of deterrence.
They say that lack of political will and conspicuous absence of honest, selfless leadership, proved the main obstacles in taking the agenda forward.
They say that the process of accountability over the years has been so much maligned that its very literal meaning has become synonymous with hypocrisy, deception and double standards.
It is unfortunate, they say, that majority of the people have become cynical about any move to cleanse the society of malpractices and corruption as the words have hardly matched the deeds of the rulers in the past. "We find ourselves in a blind alley, having no idea where to go. Every time we start the journey afresh and always end up nowhere" observers lament.
"We survived 60 years of our existence in the face of heavy odds. Call it a happy chance or Divine help, but miracles have their own limits, too" one observer noted.
He said that there should be no doubt in one's mind that excesses have been committed against political leaders throughout the checkered history by military dictators. Ayub Khan Ebdoed (disqualified) even the most brilliant and patriotic politician Hussain Shaheed Suharwardy. General Yahya Khan, instead of handing over power to the elected leaders of the country, waged a war against own people, and lost half of the country.
General Ziaul Haque hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after a controversial judicial process. Observers say that the idea of constituting 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission', in every sense of the word, is a noble one, but the question is: who is going to translate this into reality. "Will anyone on our political stage have the moral courage to admit and confess the crimes and sins of the past from the core of his heart and resolve not to repeat them again?", they add.
They question, "Have our leaders undergone that process of ultimate metamorphosis which is sine qua non for bona fide leadership? In the given situation, there are hardly any grounds for emergence of such leadership,
They contend that terms like 'truth', 'consensus', 'reconciliation', 'accountability', 'transparency', 'equality before the law' and 'fairplay' have been so grossly abused that their very mention creates a reaction and doubt in the minds of the people.
One social scientist said that combating corruption "is a complex task". Instead of scrapping the existing legal and institutional mechanism the government should reform it so that it could spearhead the fight against this evil eroding the very fabric of the society.
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