ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent warning to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was prompted by complaints from business tycoons and industrialists who had complained to the PM and President Mamnoon Hussain of maltreatment at the hands of the bureau.

Mohammad Ali Tabba, a prominent industrialist, told Dawn on Monday that the country’s top businessmen had been complaining about NAB’s “misbehaviour” to the PM for at least two years now.

“My elder brother and some other industrialists recently met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and apprised him of NAB’s attitude against innocent investors,” he said.

The prime minister, he said, appeared quite annoyed over this and assured the industrialists that he would take notice of NAB’s ‘excesses’.

A senior official from the Presidency also confirmed that certain prominent industrialists had met President Mamnoon Hussain and informed him about NAB’s alleged high-handedness.

PPP says bureau officials take orders from ‘somewhere else’

At a press conference on Sunday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan confirmed that he was part of one such meeting between businessmen and the prime minister, where Mr Sharif was apprised of NAB’s alleged wrongdoings. “If the businessmen were being truthful, then NAB’s actions were unjustified,” he had said.

Mr Tabba alleged that NAB was concocting references against “innocent businessmen and investors” without any check and balance and demanded that a body should be constituted to oversee the bureau’s affairs. “Generally, one NAB official can decide the fate of government policies and business empires,” he said.

Following their complaints, the prime minister issued a public warning to NAB, asking it to mend its way or face action.

Mr Tabba said that other businessmen who had also met the PM “informed the prime minister that it had become difficult for them to invest in different projects due to NAB’s attitude”.

When contacted, NAB spokesperson Nawazish Ali Asim said the bureau was not sure why the prime minister had warned NAB. “We are doing our job without any discrimination.”

He said the bureau had not taken any targeted action against individuals, including leaders of the ruling party or government officials.

The government’s relations with NAB began to sour in July last year, when the bureau presented a list of ‘mega corruption cases’ before the Supreme Court. The list included cases against PML-N leaders, including charges of abuse of authority against the PM and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

A 34-page summary of the list also highlighted financial and land scams. According to the list, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is also facing a probe for amassing assets worth $1,250 million beyond his means.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid had claimed at the time that these cases were politically-motivated and instituted by the Gen Musharraf regime. 

Other names on the list included former president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime ministers Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf. In December, NAB had also opened a formal investigation into allegations of misappropriation against Punjab Minister for Education and Sports Rana Mashood. Even though the minister wrote to the NAB chairman, refuting all allegations and alleging victimisation, his stance was rejected and NAB confiscated the record of the Punjab Sports Board related to a youth festival organised in 2014.

The PPP has already accused NAB of arm-twisting at the behest of the establishment. “We believe that NAB officials are taking orders from the establishment in order to malign politicians,” said PPP Senator Taj Haider.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2016