AHSAN Iqbal has become the latest casualty of the farce being carried out in the name of accountability. The PML-N leader was arrested by NAB on Thursday for alleged corruption in the Narowal Sports City project.

In recent weeks, the comparatively reticent politician had grown increasingly critical about the PTI government’s performance on various fronts; last week, he expressed unequivocal support for the verdict against retired Gen Pervez Musharraf, the only senior leader from his party to do so. An accountability court yesterday granted NAB 13-day physical remand of Mr Iqbal.

One would have to be bereft of all reason not to see this accountability season for the political witch-hunt that it is. Even though NAB claims to be an independent body, its actions manifest none of the impartiality that true independence demands. Almost without exception, only opposition figures appear to be in its cross hairs — Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Asif Zardari and Faryal Talpur, to name but a few.

Even where investigations have been launched into any individual or project associated with the PTI, NAB has been lackadaisical in pursuing them. Consider the Malam Jabba and Peshawar BRT projects in KP; the accountability body says that references are prepared and ready to be filed. However, contrary to the alacrity on display in the case of opposition leaders, NAB has yet to take action against the alleged perpetrators. It has not even challenged the Supreme Court’s stay order, issued over a year ago, on further inquiry into the BRT project.

The pattern smacks of an institution acting as an instrument of oppression in the government’s hands. It should be a matter of embarrassment for the country’s premier accountability body that virtually all those it has taken into custody have obtained bail — most recently the PML-N’s Miftah Ismail; the superior courts have also, more than once, questioned NAB’s competence and intentions.

Nevertheless, although NAB’s credibility may be in tatters, and Bilawal Bhutto’s angst understandable, the PPP chairman should not defy the summons by a statutory body to appear before it.

Unfortunately, the PPP and PML-N have been hoist by their own petard. Had they not, during their time at the centre, been so keen to ensure that NAB serve as a means to maintain pressure on the opposition, they could have improved the law under which it functions.

The NAB law gives its chairman the power to have the accused arrested at any stage of the investigation. That provision has been used to humiliate political rivals — as well as bureaucrats and sundry individuals — sully their reputations and deprive them of their liberty for extended periods even as the ‘investigation’ proceeds at a snail’s pace.

History is once again repeating itself, and given the cyclical nature of politics in this country, the PTI may one day rue its decision to go down this path.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019