IMRAN Khan’s call for a military-led anti-corruption drive in Punjab and PPP senators lashing out against what they termed the selective focus on corruption in Sindh are likely to build political pressure on the PML-N government to take accountability more seriously.

To begin with, the PPP senators appeared to speak more sensibly than the PTI chief.

Take a look: PPP senators protest against ‘selective accountability’

While acknowledging the need for accountability in Sindh, the PPP senators took issue mostly with the use of anti-terrorism laws and the federal government bypassing the Sindh government in corruption investigations.

Yet, theirs was a clearly partisan stance: at no point did any of the senators see fit to call up the Sindh government to take governance and accountability issues more seriously and to demonstrate an immediate and clear public stance against corruption.

So commonplace have allegations of corruption against the PPP government in Sindh become that it is remarkable no one within the party has yet spoken out against it. That silence only underlines the deep and continuing problems within the PPP.

Mr Khan’s demand, however, is beyond the pale. Punjab needs accountability as much as Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa do.

Know more: Imran demands anti-corruption crackdown in Punjab

There are ways and means to build public and parliamentary pressure on the PML-N governments at the centre and in Punjab to take accountability more seriously.

Why then does a national politician leading what is effectively the second-largest political party in the country need to call upon the military to take up what is a politician’s job?

Is Mr Khan admitting that his party is incapable of using the instruments available to it in the Punjab Assembly and parliament to try and unearth the truth about the so-called mega-corruption campaigns that the PTI frequently alleges are taking place?

While the PTI cannot by itself ensure that the relevant provincial and parliamentary committees probe corruption allegations, any attempt by the PML-N government to block such moves would be a public-relations setback.

Unhappily, it still appears that Mr Khan regards democracy more as an electoral process than a progressively stronger set of civilian institutions.

To be sure, when it comes to accountability and corruption, the PML-N has remained largely disinterested. Whatever the senior party leadership may claim, the operation in Karachi now appears to be fully military-run with minimal civilian input. As for the power sector, signs of incompetence and possibly corruption are growing. The fiasco over the Nandipur power plant; the inability to ensure new and adequate gas flows for the upcoming winter; stalled reforms; opaque pricing mechanisms — the power sector that was the sole focus of the prime minister himself in his first months in office has not shown the fruits of competent, professional management. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif frequently talks of transparency and accountability — but has he really done much on either of those fronts?

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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