THE National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is steady on course correction as it has now issued new SOPs to protect all parliamentarians, including MNAs, senators and MPAs, from harassment, scandalization and arbitrary arrest in frivolous corruption cases. To make the process fair and transparent, a close oversight by the custodian of parliament (Senate chairman and speakers of NA and provincial assemblies) has been introduced to protect rights and privileges of MPs being investigated. Parliamentary Accountability Facilitation Cell (PAFC) is being established to discourage mala fide, frivolous, anonymous and pseudonymous complaints against members of parliament.
This is, indeed, a welcome initiative as it would not only ensure transparency of the proceedings against a parliamentarian accused of corruption or corrupt practices but also restore the image of the parliament, which is dented because of false and exaggerated accounts of instances of corruption by the public representatives. We have numerous examples before us when some towering political personalities and members of the parliament remained targets of character assassination because of the proceedings initiated against them by the accountability watchdog but the allegations could not be proved in the court of the law. Most of such leaders came out clean at the end of the day but their reputation and that of their institution were tarnished unnecessarily. It was because of such instances that the NAB was being viewed negatively by the general public and fingers raised against the nature and fairness of the accountability process. There was, therefore, a need to review the situation and take concrete measures to restore confidence of the people in the process as, otherwise, accountability is deeply linked to the overall socio-economic progress of the country. Similar complaints were made vis-à-vis actions of the NAB against bureaucracy and businessmen affecting morale of the civil servants and prospects of investment and trade, prompting the Bureau to agree to a revised inquiry procedure against them. In this case, the NAB has conceded a lot by involving custodians of the elected houses in the process of accountability against parliamentarians and it is hoped no effort would be made to obstruct genuine proceedings. It is also a reality that the Government alone cannot meet the growing housing shortage and involvement of the private sector is a pre-requisite to maximize benefits for people. The real estate sector is facing a squeeze due to excessive taxation and exorbitant cost of construction and therefore, a package of incentives for the sector is needed on priority basis.
