NAB rendered dysfunctional as government fails to appoint chairman

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is paralysed and dysfunctional as the President has not yet appointed a Chairman after the ouster of Justice Deedar Shah in March 2011, sources in NAB told Business Recorder on Friday. The Supreme Court on June 21 gave 30 days to the government for appointing NAB Chairman, but failure to appoint anyone has made NAB technically dysfunctional, sources said.
Not a single reference has been filed and no inquiry or investigation initiated or completed since Justice Deedar Shah vacated the office, sources added. "There is no provision to keep the slot of NAB Chairman vacant as it is a constitutional slot and as per NAB Ordinance if a Chairman is ill or out of country only then can he can delegate deputy chairman as the acting chairman", NAB officials said.
Sources added that at present all major administrative decisions are being made by Deputy Chairman Javed Kazi, whose own status to use NAB Chairman's powers was nullified by Supreme Court in Habib Wahabul Khairi vs state case. The Supreme Court ruled that Deedar Shah was not empowered to delegate powers to his deputy. However, to avoid disbanding NAB the apex court directed the government to appoint NAB Chairman within 30 days, before July 21, 2011. Sources said that the government has failed to implement the Supreme Court orders which made the NAB dysfunctional.
With the government's failure to appoint a chairman and prosecutor general of NAB, this premier anti-corruption body has become practically dysfunctional, said a legal expert, adding that the Supreme Court on June 21 directed the government to ensure appointment of Chairman and Prosecutor General of NAB within the month, but the government is again employing delaying tactics.
"NAB is in fact ineffective and dysfunctional in light of the apex court order as it is without two constitutional posts of Chairman and Prosecutor General," the legal expert said. He said that there are a huge number of staff working in NAB whose contracts have expired, but nobody is paying any heed to this issue.
The NAB Ordinance 1999 revolves around the office of chairman and without chairman NAB becomes paralysed, he said. Under the 18th Amendment the NAB chairman is appointed by the president, but in consultation and consent of the prime minister and the opposition leader.
Most of the people against whom corruption cases are pending in the NAB had cover of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), but after the Supreme Court declared it null and void ab initio, they are making efforts to protect themselves by using different means, NAB sources said. They said that another aspect the NAB is facing is that after budgetary cut and down-sizing in the NAB, it does not have adequate manpower for carrying out investigations, and no funds to foot the bills under different heads and no legal advisers to pursue these cases in courts.
NAB sources said that in the past the NAB had prepared and filed references against two former prime ministers, three chief ministers, one chief secretary, five federal ministers, six provincial ministers, two provincial advisors, 19 parliamentarians, five chairmen district council and mayors, 15 military officials including one retired lieutenant general, four brigadiers, a lieutenant colonel, seven majors, an additional director NAB, ex-chairman PCB and WAPDA, chairman CBR, chairmen State Life Insurance Corporation, DG national highway authority.
Over 97 government servants of grade 18 to grade 21, 138 businessmen and bank defaulters, 29 gangs involved in public fraud through parallel banking business, establishing Forex companies and other financial irregularities and corruption cases were investigated and prosecuted by NAB.
They said that the NAB introduced the 'Plea Bargain and Voluntary Return', which helped in recovery of looted money from corrupt people, while people who entered plea bargain and voluntary return have also been disqualified from holding public office. There were 111 cases of plea bargain and Voluntary Return in 2008, in which an amount of Rs 2.352 billion has been agreed for payment by the accused, out of which Rs 1.578 billion have been recovered so far.