The federal government has made the National Accountability Bureau useless with the latest amendments in the NAB Ordinance, after which anti-corruption has taken a major decision: NAB corruption cases of less than Rs500 million now will be investigated by anti-corruption Punjab.
On the one hand, this decision placates the leaders, supporters and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, who raised slogans of accountability, while on the other hand, it has opened a new way for political confrontation.
After the letter written by the anti-corruption department to NAB Lahore, the details of the cases of less than 50 crores will be obtained and once again the series of political confrontations will start because the current government says that all the cases against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Khursheed Shah are political and baseless.
The question is that if these cases were baseless, why was an important national institution like the National Accountability Bureau involved in such frivolous cases? Why were the nation’s time and billions wasted?
However, if there is veracity to these claims, then why could the National Accountability Bureau not prove this during the tenure of former Prime Minister Imran Khan which lasted for more than 3 and a half years? And if NAB did indeed deposit billions of rupees in the national treasury, why did Pakistan’s economy not improve?
It should be noted that the accountability courts had sent back more than 50 cases to the NAB claiming that it no longer had the right to investigate the said cases. The decision may perhaps encourage greater accountability but it shall also open up greater rifts between Punjab and the Federation at a time when the country is already facing a sea of problems.
