LAHORE, Oct 22: National Accountability Bureau employees say the PPP and the PML-N ‘by design’ have made their organisation ‘toothless’ as members of both the parties seem to be interested in evading the accountability process.

A number of former and sitting NAB officials Dawn spoke to on Saturday were of the view the both major parties had been sitting on the new accountability draft for the last 30 months with a deliberate intention to deprive the country of accountability of criminals involved in mega financial scams.

They also see the PML-N’s move to challenge the appointment of former naval chief Admiral Fasih Bokhari (retired) as NAB chairman as part of its strategy to save its leadership from reopening of cases against it. They are not optimistic about a strong accountability process in Pakistan during the present PPP regime.

“The intention of both the PPP and PML-N is quite clear as new accountability set-up under the Holders of Public Office Accountability Order has not been finalised since Feb 2009 owing to one reason or another,” former NAB (Punjab) director Brig Farooq Hamid (retired) said. He said the parliamentary committee on it had met on a number of times but could not reach a consensus. “It seems the new accountability set-up may not see the light of the day in the current government’s regime,” he said.

As the PML-N on Saturday challenged Mr Bokhari’s appointment as NAB chairman in the Supreme Court, Mr Hamid said the party was doing so only for its leadership sake. “The PPP during the last two years has ensured disposal of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) cases against its leaders with the accountability courts through friendly prosecution. Since President Zardari has immunity, the NRO case abroad cannot be reopened against him.” “It is now a great dilemma for the PML-N as some three mega scams of money laundering involving PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his associates are lying pending with the NAB. Since the new NAB chairman is honest and a man of integrity, the PML-N should have no objection,” he said. The PML-N move would indirectly benefit the PPP which did not want the NAB to get active again to probe into mega financial scams, he added.

A senior official posted in Punjab said neither the government nor the opposition wanted an independent accountability set-up in the country as they could not afford it. “By a calculative move the people at the helm of affairs have crippled the NAB. It is better the government should disband the organization with the help of opposition, legitimizing corruption in the country,” he said.

Another official posted in Balochistan said if the PPP was serious in running this organization it would have simply consulted the opposition on the appointment of the NAB chairman and in case of objection referred the same to the chief justice of Pakistan. “We believe that both PPP and PML-N are hand in glove in delaying the accountability process in the country,” he commented.

This is the second time the opposition has challenged the appointment of NAB chairman in the apex court. Last year it had challenged the appointment of Justice (retired) Deedar Hussain Shah and got a verdict in its favour.

Virtually, the NAB has not been functional for about three months after the Supreme Court’s decision to appoint the NAB chief or face closure.

Almost since seven months after the removal of Mr Shah, the bureau has neither been able to arrange any voluntary return and plea bargain nor filed reference of any mega scam.

Ironically, Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nation’s Convention against corruption and NAB has been officially designated as the apex national anti-corruption body which follows the three best international principles -- awareness, prevention and enforcement.