Rudderless NAB simmers with frustration
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) today presents a perfect picture of frustration. Background interviews reveal that the bureau, which has been facing public bashing for being used as a tool by the rulers in their politics of wheeling-dealing, is now eager to improve its standing and earn respect in public eyes.
The recent decision of Chairman NAB Lt-Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz not to attend his office is said to be the result of the same frustration that envelops the bureau. Though the Director Public Relations, NAB, Col Zahid, insists that the chairman is on leave on medical grounds, no one in the bureau is really sure if the general would come back. However, it is confirmed that he has not yet formally resigned.
The apparent reason being given for the NAB chairman’s decision to not to attend the office is the reported cervical problem. “He could not sit because of a numb neck for which he is getting treatment,” a staff member of the chairman said.
Asked if he has resigned, he said, “Not yet. We have not received any such thing so far.” The retired general has not been attending the office for the last fortnight, and nobody know when he would he resume the duty. One NAB official said that the chairman would not come to his office for another month, while a source outside NAB said that Aziz has quit and his resignation would be formally announced once the government accepts it.
Sources, both within and outside the bureau, endorse that the reputed retired general was under extreme stress because of the government interference in his domain. At one point of time he got so perturbed due to the government’s growing interference and the media bashing that he held a background meeting with a selected group of journalists to explain his position and share his frustration. Hamid Mir, senior journalist and host of one of the Geo TV’s top talk shows — Capital Talk — who attended the same background meeting told this correspondent that Aziz had a heart-to-heart talk with them.
**Mir said that Aziz told newsmen that NAB was probing into the sugar scam and the multibillion-dollar Karachi Stock Exchange crash but the bureau was later directed by the government to take its hand off these cases. Mir vividly remembered the chairman NAB saying that the bureau had some concrete evidence about the involvement of some of the rulers, including federal ministers, in these scams.
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Hamid Mir, who is also the Executive Editor Northern Region for Geo TV, said that during the same background briefing he had asked the general why he did not resign if he could not proceed against the powerful and mighty in the government. He quoted Aziz as responding that he would continue fighting. But now the general seems to have given up.
A NAB source told this correspondent that every major scandal involving any government player was being capped by the top authorities. The source said that the bureau also conducted a probe into the oil price issue.
“During the course of the probe, we were told by the government that we are interfering in the policy issues whereas we were actually focusing on the gray areas of policy implementations,” another source said, disclosing that the bureau submitted its report to the prime minister in the middle of last year but it is still pending there.
In December, the source said, NAB organised a seminar where the prime minister was the chief guest. “Instead of praising our efforts, the prime minister gave a serious thrashing to the bureau,” the source recalled, but wondered that no one in the media dug out as to why was the prime minister so upset about NAB.
Generally, the NAB officials have very high opinion about Shahid Aziz. They argue that after his taking over as the NAB Chairman, Aziz amended the policy of arresting the accused at preliminary stages of the probe.
“The NAB law was described as draconian for the reason that the people were arrested first, while probe was initiated later. But now no such thing happens here,” a senior NAB official said, adding that Aziz also de-linked the promotion of civil servants from the NAB probe.
A former corps commander Lahore, Aziz, who is said to have also submitted a report to the Army chief about a land scam in Lahore involving some top ranking Army officials including a general, has refused to use an official vehicle of 2800cc when offered to him as the Chairman NAB.
The 2800cc luxury jeep was in use of the former chairman but Aziz said that he was entitled to only 1600cc car so he would never sit in the 2800cc jeep. Because of this reason, a 1600cc car was arranged and provided to the chairman.
Similarly, it is said, two low scale NAB employees were deputed at Aziz’s residence. But when he came to know that they are beyond his official entitlement, he asked his staff to deduct the salary of the two from his pay for the days they were posted at his residence. Deputy Chairman NAB Maj-Gen Muhammad Siddique is presently serving as the acting chairman of the bureau.