Culture of Accountability – the role of NAB

Culture of Accountability – the role of NAB

No country in the world is immune to corruption. The public officials misuse
their authority for private monetary gains that corrodes trust in institutions
and governments. It makes the public policies less effective and exploitative.
Corruption erodes the government’s capacity and ability to grow the economic
and political system. Corruption is a parasite that mercilessly sucks a nation’s
blood.

Pakistan has conserved its authoritarian form of governance that was

inherited from British from the day of its inception. There is a perception that
ruling elite in Pakistan view state as milk of cow for their personal upgrading,
augmentation and enrichment and the same attitude is reflected by the
bureaucracy and the system in performance. It is really a dilemma that key
decision makers and policy formulators work to benefit themselves. How
might we better equip citizens to safeguard and ensure that the actions,
activities and decisions of the public officials are subject to appropriate
oversight? The motto of the current government is to eradicate the menace of
corruption that is really an uphill task because corruption and white collar has
become structural. No previous governments in Pakistan have ever had
intestinal resilience and the political will to curb this disease. While there
have been a few highly publicized cases of corruption – the arrest of senior
politicians and the bureaucrats has set the example of justice and biasness.
Pakistan is predestined to remain near the bottom line of Transparency
International’s corruption index but due the current sound measures by the
government and the NAB has changed the rating of corruption index. The
World Bank has a goal to end poverty by 2030 by advancing and boosting
shared prosperity and growth for poor in third world and developing countries.
Eradicating or reducing corruption is the core of Sustainable Development
Goals. Pakistan is a developing country and has been facing the challenge of
corruption that is quite prevalent. Corruption and white collar crime have
disproportionate and lopsided effect on the socio-economic and political
system including impact on the education, health and justice as well.

The menace of corruption erodes the trust of governments and dents the
social contract. No doubt in it that corruption fuels and perpetuates the
discrimination, inequality and discontent that ultimately leads to fragility,
instability, violent, fierce, extremism, fanaticism and conflicts. It impedes and
hampered foreign direct investment, progress and development consequently
effect the growth and jobs. In such scenario in Pakistan, the role of NAB has
become indispensable to save Pakistan from this nuisance and jeopardy.
Accountability is the secret weapon of the government through can foster
economy. NAB is dealing with different forms of accountability like political
accountability, bureaucratic accountability, legal accountability, and citizen’s
accountability. As for as the political and bureaucrat accountability is

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 Culture of Accountability – the role of NAB

concerned, NAB is doing its best and it has set the examples of honesty and
integrity with Pakistan. The role of NAB has become heart of democracy in
Pakistan. It is first time happened in Pakistan that NAB has arrested and
detained the most powerful elite. This is the great achievement and it created
hope for common people that justice prevails.

Pakistan is a democratic country and NAB is an autonomous institution for

anti-corruption at national level. In democratic country, the political will is
need of the hour for its stability and economic development. Honk Kong and
Singapore are the countries which are relatively successful in eradicating
corruption just because of the strong political commitments of their leaders
and their accountability institutions in Asian countries. But in Pakistan,
political will has become stronger and NAB is also focusing on the
commitments and results to make Pakistan free from corruption. NAB is one
of the most efficient, effective and proficient institution. The NAB officers are
properly and well trained in their respective investigative duties and
responsibilities. NAB is non-politicized and less effected department in
Pakistan. NAB has been run by the military officers or ex judges. NAB has
adopted the procedures similar with Hong Kong. It is an apex institute against
corruption and financial malpractices. The objective of NAB is to recuperate
and recover the looted money from corrupt officials and politicians. An
important aspect of NAB is to recover the looted money so punishment cannot
return public money to the government, so NAB adopted ‘Plea Bargain’ type
strategies. Many analysts oppose ‘Plea Bargain’ without concentrating on the
nature of the issue. Amnesty schemes and Plea Bargain type strategies are
adopted in the entire world even in the developed countries.

In the 22 months, NAB has made the remarkable efforts that have resulted in
excellent affect. The recovery amount is crossed Rs. 71 billion over 600
corruption references in NAB. First time in the history of Pakistan that
accountability is going into the right direction that benefit Pakistan’s poor
economy. NAB has taken the initiative to have a friendly behaviour with
businessmen to feel them free to do the business in Pakistan without any
threat or fear because businessmen are the backbone of state’s economy so
they must be protected. Despite the role of NAB in curbing corruption in
Pakistan, still Pakistan has not been successful to seek a better position and it
is slipped from 99 to 101 positions. It is because of reporting more corruption
cases. So public don’t need to worry about it. In the meanwhile, according to
the government of Pakistan, corruption has its roots for last 70 years and it
isn’t so easy to eradicate it in a year or two. The mandate and manifesto of the
current government is to eradicate the corruption and to make Pakistan a
developed and a prosperous nation. The role of NAB is the essential to bring
this structural change at national level. The overall performance of NAB is
wonderful but there are many questions asked by the public on the favouritism
and biasness of the NAB. The questions are: is NAB an unbiased institution?

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 Culture of Accountability – the role of NAB

Why NAB only target a few politicians? Why NAB isn’t targeting the military
people and the honourable judges?

Simple answer of all the questions is: it is beginning of accountability and

transparency; so public just need to wait and watch the upcoming endeavours
of NAB in which all types of the white collar criminals would be ultimately
investigated.

— Written by: Nasir Khan. The writer is Ph.D. scholar, CSS coach and author.
Published in Daily Times on October 21, 2019.

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