Is NAB’s witch-hunting for real?

Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has probably never enjoyed the reputation of being non-partisan or a highly competent organisation. One of the many instances when NAB’s action raised eyebrows was its May-2018 press release according to which NAB had “ordered complaint verification against former PM Nawaz Sharif and others for allegedly sending $4.9 billion to India through money laundering as per media report.”

But over the last two years the organisation has been increasingly blamed for the indecisiveness of government administration which the civil servants across the country attribute to “witch-hunting” by the accountability body. For a long time, the PTI government dispelled such notions, and defended NAB. However, in yesterday’s news PM Khan’s advisor, Abdul Razak Dawood reportedly began his October-29 Cabinet discussion by stating that NAB’s overdrive is the reason why the government has been unable to attract good quality private professionals for public sector entities.

The supporters of NAB’s overdrive, who also tend to believe in Khan’s mantra that corruption is the country’s biggest and perhaps only problem, point to cases like DG parks that appear to be poster child of corruption cases. Au contraire, in absence of any empirical study that investigates the issue of persistent complaint of bureaucratic accountability over the last two years and its putative link with fear of multiple accountability, NAB’s critics only had anecdotes and theories to substantiate their claims.  (See BR Research’s Is corruption Pakistan’s biggest problem? Aug 2, 2019)   

Thankfully, the latest survey-based paper by National Institute of Public Policy (NIPP) at the National School of Public Policy (NSPP) addresses that research gap. Written by Shahid Rahim Sheikh and Saif Ullah Khalid, NIPP’s Dean and Research Associate respectively, the paper is based on a survey questionnaire filled by more than 600 junior, mid and senior level bureaucrats across the country.

Not surprisingly, some of the key findings of the perception survey echo what NAB’s independent a-political critics have been saying all along: that bureaucracy is not taking decisions and avoiding responsibility; that NAB is not independent of external influence; that the government has used NAB as a weapon against civil servants considered close to political opponents; that NAB arranges media leaks against civil servants.

The survey also raises question marks over the judiciary, and the media. In the case of former, civil servants do not perceive judicial in administrative affairs as judicious leading to delay in decisions. In the case of latter, the study finds out that civil servants do not perceive mainstream media to be accurately reporting administrative decisions or even be generally well educated about administrative process. Indeed, that is one of the key lessons learnt from NAB’s 2018 Indian remittance faux pas. (See BR Research’s NAB’s remittance faux pas: history and lessons May 10, 2018)

NIPP’s perception survey lends further credence to the concerns of the businessmen and civil servants alike, which will hopefully prod the government to address the legal and structural issues that gives legs to NAB’s witch-hunting. Perception matters, and addressing those perceptions through dialogue, debate, discussions and systematic change is the responsibility of the government.