Accountability and NAB

Hurdles, failures and reforms

Accountability: accountability is answerability and the
expectation of account-giving. In leadership roles,
accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption
of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and
policies including the administration and governance.
• Accountability is considered the fourth leg of the
metaphorical chair of the good governance.
• WB: according to world Bank accountability if
answerability and enforcement.
• Facets of Accountability:
 Political accountability: of government, politicians and bureaucrats
to the public and to the legislative bodies. (Parliament) strong
legislation, RTI 2017, Parliamentary committees (Panama),
 Ethical accountability: standard of the individuals and the working
groups within an organization. Ashir Azeem (FBR)
 Administrative accountability: rules and laws of an organization or
ministry. ( CSS pass police driver)
 Economical accountability: independent institutions that hold
government and its official accountable regarding the economic
misuse of public money. EX: NAB, Public Accounts Committee,
Judicial commissions, election commission, ombudsman, FIA etc..
• Ombudsman: Pakistan has 12 independent ombudsman institutions
representing general and specific mandates at both federal and provincial
levels, such as taxation, workplace harassment, insurance and banking. All
of them are members of the Forum of Pakistan Ombudsman (FPO) – a
non-political network. The promulgation of the Ombudsman Institutional
Reform Act 2013 gave OIs administrative and financial autonomy.
The Federal Ombudsman (FO) has processed about 1.07 million
complaints over the course of its 30-year existence, including some high
profile cases (e.g. maladministration causing an outbreak of measles;
extraordinary delays in issuing Machine Readable Passports; and the
nonpayment of pensions). The implementation rate on decided cases
stands at 90%. Though complaints are received from both genders
however, only 11% are from women. Sector-wise, the majority are from
Water and Power Development Authority, Sui-Northern Gas Pipelines
Ltd., Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd., and Allama Iqbal Open
University.
 PAC: A statutory organ of the National Assembly.
According to the article 171 the report of the auditor
general will be placed to President who will then submit
it to Parliament.
The committee may examine the expenditures,
administration, delegated legislation, public petitions
and policies of the Ministry concerned and its associated
public bodies and may forward its report of findings and
recommendations to the Ministry and the Ministry shall
submits its reply to the Committee [N.A Rule 201 (4)]
 FIA: After the independence of 1947, it was named as Pakistan
Special Police Establishment (PSPE). The said Establishment was
given schedule of offences with the ordinance of VIII of 1948. With
the passage of time, the PSPE depart from investigation the
offences of bribery and corruption against central government
employees, was given powers to investigate cases relating to the
offences under the following laws:-

Official Secret Act, 1923

Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947
Passport (Offences), 1952
Customs Act, 1959.
The requirements of federal government regarding investigation of criminal
offences kept on increasing and Mr. Gul Ahmad in his report on “Police Reform”,
submitted to cabinet on 07-04-1972, recommended establishment of Federal Police
Organization to deal with smuggling, narcotics, currency Offences, enforcement of
laws relating to foreigners, immigration and passports and offences having inter-
provincial ramification. Consequently FIA Act, 1974. (Act VIII-4 of 1975) was
promulgated on 13-01-1975, bringing Federal Investigation Agency into existence.

Till now 2004, primarily role was anti corruption and white collar crime treating
2004, the government transfer anti corruption and economic crime function to the
NAB.

FIA has been dedicated the lead agency in Anti Human Smuggling and investigating
cases of counterfeit Currency.
 Benefits of having a strong accountability
 Improvement in legislation: EX: US, France
 Provision of fundamental rights: EX European Countries
 Better leadership possibilities: EX Malaysia
 Fair Elections
 People-centric economic policies
 Better utilization of natural resources
 Better revenue collection and end to budget deficit
 Improvement in health and education
 Merit based jobs
 Decline in corruption
 Provision of justice to everyone
 End to favoritism and red tapism
Reasons of poor accountability in Pakistan
 Lack of political will. EX: PIA, Sugar inquiry, Hajj Quota, BISP
 Intermittent dictatorial regimes and their laws: PIA, Steel Mills and Railway
 Illiteracy. Lowest in south east asia
 Social disparities
 No free media
 Weak educational institutions
 Tattered Judiciary: Prevaiz Musharaf case
 Lack of resources
 Low pay structure
 Zero use of technology
 No training and skill development
 Weak system of performance evaluation
 Right person for right job
 Just laws of the accountability institutions and no political interference
 NO independent Audit institutions
 steps towards accountability
• 18th amendment
• 19th amendment
• Current Govt and sugar scandal
• Suo Moto notices
• Changes in NAB rules
• Right to information bill 2017
• Election commission bill 2017
• Accountability of officers of judiciary
 NAB
• The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established on
November 16, 1999 by the National Accountability Ordinance by
the then President of Pakistan Gen. Pervaiz Musharaf. The NAB
has its headquarters in the federal capital and has five regional
offices in four provinces.
• The NAB is a federal executive agency of the Government of
Pakistan, with the mandate to deal with corruption prevention,
raise public awareness, and enforce of anti-corruption measures.
• It has four main divisions; Operations, Prosecution, Awareness and
Prevention, and Human Resource and Finance Divisions.
• It was made by an ordinance no XIX and it acts under the article
277AA of the constitution of Pakistan.
• Organization: The bureau has two principal officers:
the Chairman; and the Prosecutor General of
Accountability in Pakistan. The Chairman is the head
of investigation, and serves a four-year term. Lt-Gen
Syed Mohammad Amjad was the first chairman of
the bureau. Justice (R) Javed Iqbal is the present
chairman of NAB. The Prosecutor General is the
head of prosecution, and serves a three-year term.
A retired justice Asghar haider is current Prosecutor
General of National Accountability Bureau (Nab).
• Objectives
National Accountability Bureau derives its objectives from its
approved project document titled 'National Anti Corruption Strategy'
or NACS and defines them as follows:
Short Term
Setting in motion systemic improvements that will
strengthen the national integrity system and the people against
corruption.
Long Term
The elimination of corruption by engaging all the stakeholders in the
fight against corruption, through a programe, which is holistic,
comprehensive and progressive.
Historical Background: NAB and its
making
• First anti-corruption organization of Pakistan: The
Ehtesab Cell (EC)
Pakistan’s first anti-corruption organization the Ehtesab
Cell (EC), was established by the November 1996 Ehtesab
Ordinance promulgated by the caretaker government of
Prime Minister Malik Meraj Khalid, and then operated
under the elected government of Nawaz Sharif, who
passed the Ehtesab Act, 1997. In November 1999, it was
transformed by the National Accountability Ordinance
into the National Accountability Bureau (NAB),
• Undemocratic Foundations: When supposedly independent state institutions are
used to serve the interests of the governing party this process is called
“politicization of the institution.”
• Few Examples of the degree of the politicization of the institutions:
The highest judicial authority, the Supreme Court, has repeatedly endorsed military
takeovers, in spite of clear constitutional provisions on civilian control of the
military (State v. Dosso and another 1958; Begum Nusrat Bhutto v. Chief of Army
staff and Federation of Pakistan 1977; Syed Zafar Ali Shah and others v. General
Pervez Musharraf, Chief Executive of Pakistan and others 2000). This intertwined
conduct of the judiciary and politics in Pakistan has been described as the
“judicialization of politics”.
The police administration is also subject to similar biases: while it effectively
manages protocol and guarantees the security of the political elite, it has an
inclination to become callous and disinterested when ordinary citizens are
Concerned.
• The creation of the Ehtesab Cell: According to article 224 of
the 1973 Constitution, the sole duty of the caretaker
government is to oversee the general elections and the
transfer of power to the newly elected government.
• But according to Prime Minister, Malik Meraj Khalid
accountability was far more important than elections.
• When the PML-N won the 1997 general elections with an
absolute majority and formed a government; it did not
challenge the unconstitutional and undemocratic
foundation of the EC. Instead, it used it to harass and
intimidate members of the opposition. (PPP vs EC)
 • Anti-Corruption Laws: A political playground
• When the PML-N came to power in February 1997, it did not challenge the
undemocratic establishment of the EC. Instead, it went on to change certain
sections of the law to its advantage, such as article 13. In the Ehtesab
Ordinance, 1996, article 13 gave the right to the (indirectly elected) President
of Pakistan to appoint the head of the EC after “consultation” with the Prime
Minister, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, and the Chief
Justice of Pakistan. (The 3 Govts became the victim of this law).
• Nawaz Sharif came up in May 1997 with its own tailor-made law—the Ehtesab
Act, 1997 (EA)—bringing the organization under its actual political control by
changing the procedure to appoint the Chief Ehtesab Commissioner: the
Federal Government after consultation with the leader of the opposition and
the Chief Justice of Pakistan would now appoint the head of the EC.
• Article 17: The voluntary Return. (No Change)
• It even added two sections—29(a) and 29(b)—to the
law that empowered the head of the EC to discharge
any accused person from prosecution even after the
charge was framed. Section 29(b) declared absolute
trust in the conduct of the head of the EC.
• However, private corruption, as well as acts of
corruption committed within military or judicial
institutions, were deliberately left outside the
jurisdiction of the anti-corruption organization.
 NAB: A biased institute
• The chairman of the EC was arrested on Musharraf’s order on the charge of using the
agency for party purposes.
• Article 5 (r), the “Willful Default” by Musharaf in. However, after the PML-Q came into
power in October 2002, the then finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, introduced a scheme
for writing off loans that around 50,000 people benefited from, including politicians
and business men.
• the fact that the jurisdiction of the accountability organizations has not been extended
to the military and the judiciary exposes the shortfalls of the democratic setup
in Pakistan.
• Article 15 of the NAO lays out different punishments for the same offence depending
on whether it is committed by a public person or a private individual. If a public official
is convicted on the basis of a plea bargain, s/he will be immediately discharged and
disqualified from holding any public office for ten years. On the other hand, the law
does not propose any sentence should a similar act be committed by a private person.
• (Khan Asfandyar Wali and others v. Federation
of Pakistan through. Cabinet Division,
Islamabad and others 2001). Executive of
Pakistan be required to consult with the Chief
Justice of Pakistan for the future appointment
of the Chairman, that the Chairman be
appointed for a non extendable period of four
years. the SC assigned itself a sort of political
role in this process.
The politicized performance of the NAB
• Voluntary Return and Plea Bargain.
• More than 82 percent of convictions within all ranks were
obtained during direct (41.7 percent) and indirect military
rule (40.4 percent). On the other hand, only 16.3 percent
of total convictions took place under the PPP government
and 1.9 percent under PML-N rule.
• The Chairman of the NAB is appointed through a political
process— by the leader of the house (Prime Minister) and
the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly—,
we may also safely assume that the Chairman shall be
susceptible to external influences.
Performance of the NAB: the bright side
• . NAB has recovered Rs178 billion from corrupt elements during the two
years tenure of Justice (r) Javed Iqbal as Chairman NAB.
• NAB has redefined the workings of its investigation officers by devising
combined investigation (CIT) system for benefiting the experiences of
director, additional director, investigation officers and senior legal counsel.
This had not only improved the overall workings but has also set 10 months
period right from conducting inquiry to filing reference of a complaint.
• NAB had received 51,591 complaints, out of which 46,123 complaints have
been disposed of during 2019.
• NAB had approved 574 inquiries and investigations 221 investigations in
2019. NAB had filed 101 corruption references in different accountability
courts from out of 179 mega corruption references, while 46 references has
been taken to logical conclusion. Currently, out of 179 mega corruption
references, 13 inquiries and 19 investigations are under process as per law.
• NAB has filed 1275 corruption references involving Rs943 billion in
25 respected Accountability Courts of the country which are under
trial as per law. Moreover, NAB has received over 30,000
applications from the affectees of Mudarba/Mukharika scandals.
• An MOU has been signed with HEC. NAB has established over
50,000 character building societies in colleges/universities across
country.
• Furthermore, NAB has established a state of the art forensic
science laboratory at Islamabad to improve accuracy of
investigations.
• SAARC anti-corruption forum was set up on the suggestion of NAB.
 Causes of failures
• Voluntary Bargain
• The power of Chairman, to sign the challan. A
tactical delay giving more time to accuse to
manipulate evidences against him.
• it does not have its own police force.
• No online system of complaints.
• No habit of surprise checks
• No link with NADRA