Recent amendments to the NAB law made by the PDM government are being contested in the Supreme Court by PTI chairman Imran Khan. He maintains that the NAB Ordinance 2001 has been deliberately altered and weakened to allow for his rivals to get exemptions and acquittals in corruption cases. Khan’s argument is not without merit; since the law was changed many high profile cases, against the Sharif family and others, have been dismissed. However, the amendments made were through Parliament, which Mr Khan and his party has boycotted since he was removed as PM through a vote of no confidence back in April. If he truly wanted to thwart the government’s, as he puts it, ‘self-serving’ attempts, to curtail NAB’s powers, he should have done so by voting against the legislation that was tabled. Since his ouster he has attempted to regain his position and power through street agitation and targeted attacks against the military establishment, none of which has worked. Hearing his petition yesterday, the Supreme Court wondered what exactly he wanted. Should the Court, in another instance of judicial overreach, undermine the executive’s authority and deem the amendments made to NAB law null and void?
In his typically hypocritical style of conducting politics, Mr Khan has conveniently forgotten what sort of NAB he was running with the help of the establishment, rounding up his political opponents and putting them behind bars in loosely constructed and poorly prosecuted corruption cases. It is ironical that the very Court that he has approached to presumably ‘reverse’ what the government has done to NAB, has been highly critical of the methods employed by the accountability watchdog during the PTI’s tenure, terming their unjustified prolonged detentions a human rights violation.
Since its creation by a military dictator as a tool for extreme political victimization, NAB has been an ineffective institution used by those in power to further their agendas and hold on to power through fear and blatant mistreatment of ‘accused’ persons, and that has led to suicide in some cases as well. There is indeed a debate to be had about what a modern NAB law should look like and even if there is a need for it to exist anymore. But that is to be had amongst lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in Parliament, not in a courtroom.
