In defence of amended NAB law

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountably Shehzad Akbar came out on Sunday to defend at a presser the recently-introduced amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance as the opposition has strongly criticized the changes, saying they are meant to protect aides and cronies of the government. That reaction can easily be seen as criticism for the sake of criticism considering the opposition parties have earlier been complaining that the accountability law, instituted by a military ruler, was deeply flawed and brought in to harass his challengers. The PM's aide seemed to be right when he said the opposition misinterpreted the new ordinance in claiming that the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB's) powers had been clipped just to give benefit to PTI leaders facing corruption cases. The proper way for the government to go about it, though, was to present the proposed amendments in Parliament rather than making them via an ordinance.

A major cause of complaint since NAB got energized under the present government has been that it was pestering people right and left, negatively impacting the government's functioning and also the business environment. As the PM's man pointed out, in the prevailing environment bureaucrats were reluctant to sign files for fear of being hauled up by NAB in case they made make a wrong decision, brining the government machinery almost to a standstill. No one needs to suffer on account of doing anything in good faith. The challenge, hence, has been to separate honest officers from those who use their positions to favour special interests, lining their own pockets in the process. The amended law gives a sense of security to the former class of bureaucrats. The courts rather than NAB are to decide as to who should get the benefit of doing anything in good faith. Another clause has been added to the law to ascertain in the event a person - a public office holder, minister or bureaucrat - is charged with misusing authority whether a personal monetary benefit is involved in their decisions. If the charge is proven, only then will it be considered corruption, explained the PM's assistant. This should remove any misgivings about persecution of people who don't misuse public office for personal gains.

Another important change is that matters pertaining to federal and provincial taxation, levies and imports won't fall under the ambit of NAB; all such cases will be handled by the FBR. Similarly, the accountability watchdog won't scrutinize any person or entity or transaction, who or which are not directly or indirectly connected with a holder of public office. Also, tax evasion no longer remains under the NAB purview, except in cases where people have already been convicted. This will come as big relief to many. All these changes address common complaints against the NAB Ordinance. In the past, successive governments used this law against political opponents. At one point, an attempt to amend it was made, but it failed for being intended only to get rid of the pending cases of corruption against leaders of the then sitting government. The new ordinance is now to be presented before Parliament. It is hoped the opposition will participate in a meaningful debate on it so it can be further improved.