WITH elections just three months away, the extension of a controversial ordinance that gives the National Accountability Bureau enhanced powers to detain and arrest individuals even on mere suspicion is a worrying sign.

The ‘midnight ordinance’ — described as such because of the furtive manner in which it was promulgated in July by Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani when he was acting president — has been extended through a majority vote in the Upper House.

Mr Sanjrani once again used his office to put the resolution directly to a vote despite a reasonable suggestion that the ordinance at least be reviewed by a committee in light of a recent Supreme Court judgement on previous amendments to the NAB law.

But from remarks made by the PML-N’s erstwhile law minister, it seems that those who had moved the resolution cared little about how a three-member bench headed by former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial had ruled on the PDM-led government’s tinkering with the accountability process.

That judgement is pending review by the Supreme Court under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, and the sponsors of the NAB amendments seem hopeful that it will be overturned.

So why this, and why now? When the Supreme Court has hinted that it is open to re-examining the NAB amendments case, why was the need felt to extend an ordinance that seems to have been promulgated only to give the accountability bureau a toolset with which to harass once again and coerce politicians?

It seems pertinent to point out that the changes the ordinance in question made to the NAB law were to give it the power to detain a suspect if they were ‘not cooperating’, the power to detain someone even if the charges against them were still at the ‘inquiry’ stage, and to increase the limit on keeping an arrested accused in physical remand to 14 days and increase it to 30 days.

Considering NAB’s alleged role in political engineering — a role every major political party in the country has accused it of playing at some point — the intent behind extending these powers right when an election date has finally been agreed to must be questioned.

The PDM’s justification for restructuring NAB’s powers was to prevent it from victimising politicians. Why, then, does it seem it will be used for the same purpose again?

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2023