The government plans to gradually dissolve the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to put in place a substitute accountability mechanism through normal court in the country. The budget of this accountability organisation was cut by 30 per cent in July after it was put under the Ministry of Law and Justice in place of Establishment Division through a notification issued on August 27, 2008.
The government allocated Rs 628.069 million for 2008-09, against the original budget estimate of Rs 945.198 million, sources in the NAB told Business Recorder here on Friday. The Federal cabinet decided to set up a cabinet committee, headed by the Law Minister to make recommendations for the repeal of the NAB Ordinance, replacing it with another law, while the Prime Minister has announced to abandon this accountability bureau once and for all.
But there is no clear-cut stance of the government regarding the future of this accountability organisation, which was once a big threat to politicians, opposing Pervez Musharraf. Many theories are under process regarding the future of the NAB as Federal Law Minister is giving a statement, which is being contradicted, by the statements from other ministries.
The cut in budget force the NAB to off-load 126 officials, including 85 contract employees and 41 officials, who joined the NAB on deputation from different departments, sources said, adding that the deputationists, who were sent back to their parent departments, were working in the NAB in Grade-16 and above, while a few were working in Grade 19 and 20. All the contract employees, whose services were terminated, were working in Grade 17 and below, sources said.
The government has provided Rs 150 million to the NAB for first quarter, ending by September 30, they said, adding that it was being expected that the NAB would close various big operations and also stop the investigation on different under process cases.
They said that summary was sent to Ministry of Law and Justice for release of the budget, but so far no reply was received from the other side. At present, there were over 1,600 officers and subordinate staff working in the NAB, while there was no judge in four Accountability Courts, the sources said.
They said that Accountability Courts were working without judges. This was the main cause that the application regarding the regular hearing of the references against Mian Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and others were submitted in the court of Central Judge Special, they said.
The NAB was established on November 16, 1999 with the promulgation of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, immediately after the military coup by Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999. It became controversial and defamed after military dictator used this organisation for buying the loyalties of political leaders belonging to Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan Peoples Party. Pervez Musharraf, on the basis of the NAB, succeeded in creating PML-Q and PPP-Patriot, which supported the PML-Q in formation of government in 2002.
Lieutenant General Syed Mohammed Amjad was the first Chairman of the bureau. Naveed Ahsan is the current Chairman. The Prosecutor General is the head of prosecution, and serves a three-year term. Lawyer Irfan Qadir was the first Prosecutor General. The bureau claimed that it recovered over Rs 240 billion (four billion US dollars) from corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.
Human rights organisations have labelled the bureau as a vehicle for detaining former officials and party leaders. But the government continues to use the bureau and a host of anti-corruption and sedition laws to keep in jail or threaten political opponents, particularly members of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League.