Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair over a meeting of key ministers on Tuesday (tomorrow) to consider changes in the National Accountability Ordinance. Apart from the Law Minister and Attorney-General, the Information, Defence, Foreign, Education and Planning Ministers will also attend, thus making it a congregation of legal minds. The principal issue before the meeting is to be the appointment of the NAB Chairman, whose four-year tenure is to expire on October 10. The purpose, it seems of party powerhouses meeting is supposed to explore ways of re-appointing the present Chairman, even though the law provides for a single term of four years. It might also seek some way of avoiding consultation with the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.
Any reappointment, or extension, would weaken the accountability process, because it would mean that the present Chairman had been rewarded for how he had made sure that the government did not come up before it, while both members of the previous government and bureaucrats on their side were thrown into jail for prolonged periods. More important, the possibility of an extension could be dangled in front of any future NAB Chairman. The meeting will also work out how the NAB Chairman is to be removed; the Ordinance having only a brief reference, not any details. That prevented proceedings on the scandal in which the Chairman allegedly had developed illicit relations with an accused. If that is remedied, then the Chairman, if reappointed, would have that case hanging over his head.
It seems that the government no longer intends to seek opposition consensus over the NAB law. Its railroading of the electoral law amendments, despite claims that it would seek opposition consent, raises the fear that it might try to bulldoze these measures, which would also have the effect of reducing NAB to a mere government department, subordinate to the whims of the government, rather than an independent institution. The government’s tendency to extend tenures of high officials rather than making a fresh appointment, as in the case of the COAS at the beginning of the year, should be kept in check. The purpose of tenures is to not just to provide a convenience, but to provide the basis of independence to those who serve the state. They must not be converted into servants of the government.
