By M. Ismail Khan
PESHAWAR, March 5: The federal government is evolving a new anti-corruption strategy to bring major restructuring to anti-corruption agencies including the National Accountability Bureau to determine their role in the post-October scenario, chairman NAB Lt-Gen Munir Hafiz said at a meeting here on Tuesday.
“Restructuring is under way in the government departments. The exercise is on. We are considering a new anti-corruption strategy that may entail reorganization of anti-corruption agencies. It is premature to say what shape will they take - whether the NAB will remain or whether the FIA will be abolished or merged into the anti-corruption establishment in the post-October scenario. All this needs reorganization. Rules and laws that are implementable should remain,” he said at his meeting with senior civil officers, businessmen and journalists.
“We have to see whether the NAB Ordinance or the FIA Act needs amendment. We need a lot of changes in the law,” he said.
Gen Munir Hafiz said the media too needed to play its role in creating awareness in the post-October scenario. “We should not pitch our expectations too high,” he said.
The NAB chairman was candid and forthcoming. He acknowledged ‘past mistakes’ in the government’s accountability drive and said that efforts had been made to make amends. “Inconvenience must have been caused and we are sorry for that. The intentions were noble. We have corrected the situation. We don’t make things a matter of ego,” he said while pointing out that 82 cases had been closed in the past two years where there was no evidence. “Cases were withdrawn when we found out that those did not hold much water.”
He defended plea-bargain process. He said the NAB Ordinance ensured punishment and recovery of looted national wealth. “If looted money is recovered and spent in the right way that should be acceptable,” he said, while referring to the recovery made from former Naval Chief Mansurul Haq. He clarified that acceptance of plea-bargain was discretionary rather every application was put before a committee for decision.
The NAB chief was confident that the next parliament would validate the NAB Ordinance since it had already been endorsed by the Supreme Court.
The NAB chairman, however, did not agree with the perception of negative impact of accountability drive on national economy. “There may have been some impact but I believe that it has been exaggerated,” he said.
He also dispelled the impression that the NWFP had borne the major brunt of accountability drive and insisted that it was even-handed. He said that in the Punjab 106 cases were filed out of which convictions were made in 29 cases. In Sindh, out of the 122 cases filed, convictions were made in 50 cases. In the NWFP, 25 convictions were made out of the total 63 references filed while the figure in Balochistan was slightly higher where 55 convictions were made in 69 references.
“It is roughly the same through out. It can’t be the same down to the last figure.”
Highlighting the achievements of NAB, Lt-Gen Munir Hafiz said that the anti-corruption agency had been able to recover a total of Rs93 billion since its inception that included the recovery of Rs58 billion from loan defaulters, Rs2 billion in plea bargain and Rs6 billion in court fines.
Besides this, he said the anti-corruption drive had helped the government save another Rs26/27 billion. He did not say how that saving had been made.
He said the government’s anti-corruption drive had gained international recognition as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, OECD and other international agencies had offered cooperation by way of technical assistance and equipment.