ISLAMABAD: Senator Farooq H. Naek of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has replaced the party colleague Farhatullah Babar as member of the Parliamentary Committee on National Accountability Law. A notification issued by the National Assembly secretariat on Friday said that the Speaker after consultation with the parliamentary leader of the PPP-Parliamentarians has included Mr Naek in the committee in place of Mr Babar. It does not say why Mr Babar left the committee.

The other PPP member in the 20-member committee headed by the law minister is MNA Syed Naveed Qamar.

Earlier on Nov 7, Mr Babar resigned from the membership of the committee after it had become known that the PPP would no longer press for the accountability of all that included judges and army generals.

Almost simultaneously other political parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, also backtracked on their stated position to hold across-the-board accountability.

Dawn has a copy of the resignation letter of Mr Babar which at the time was brought before all the committee members.

The resignation letter

The resignation letter said: “Ever since the Parliamentary Committee was notified I have been vigorously pursuing across the board accountability of all based on the principle of ‘one institution one law’ and rejecting the notion of some more holier and sacred that others.

“In doing so I was driven by the policy of my Party enunciated by the leadership from time to time. Other political parties also seemed to endorse this principle.

“During one of the recent meetings of the Committee however (which I was not able to attend) all political parties including the PPP decided to exempt some institutions from the ambit of new proposed accountability mechanism. I really do not know, perhaps would never know, the real reasons behind this decision but as disciplined member of the Party cannot go against it.

“At the same time backtracking on the position I have been advocating both verbally and in writing it would be diminishing for me to continue as member of the Committee.

“I therefore resign from the Committee with immediate effect”.

Earlier in his note on the subject which too was circulated among the members and made part of the record, he said: “The exclusion of some institutions from the ambit of accountability lies at the root of a discredited accountability mechanism and it must come to an end.

“In matters of corruption and corrupt practices there should be “one law and one authority” to exercise jurisdiction over all public office holders regardless of to whichever institution they may belong.

“A historic opportunity has presented itself to the Parliament to rise to the occasion and enact such legislation.

“It would be wrong to proceed on a faulty assumption that an across the board accountability law will not be acceptable to some. It will throw dim light on those perceived to be opposing it. If the Parliament’s law is rejected by others, so be it. Let the people of Pakistan judge for themselves. The Parliament must not surrender even without asserting its right to legislate.

“There are issues relating to judiciary that must be addressed only by the Supreme Judicial Council. Likewise there are issues in the military that must be addressed only by its internal mechanisms. But there is not one good reason why corruption and corrupt practices in any institution shall lie beyond the “one law one authority” principle.

“Moreover, there are issues in institutional irregularities that cannot be left to the concerned institutions themselves. During Question Hour during the last Senate session it transpired that all irregular conversion of defence lands for commercial purposes were condoned through an executive order during a caretaker government in 2008 without regard to the competence of the executive and without recourse to the Parliament. Such issues cannot be left to the concerned institutions and must be subjected to the principle of “one law, one authority”.

“If the Parliament fails today, it will have no one but itself to blame for failure to evolve a system of across the board accountability of all.

“I therefore urge that we assert a principled position earnestly, tenaciously, in good faith and without fear or favor. In the fullness of time those obstructing it will not escape public censure. This in itself will be no small achievement as it will take the process a step forward.”

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2017