Daily Times Editorial Dec 10, 2009

NRO and cabinet reshuffle

The widely expected federal cabinet reshuffle seems nowhere in sight after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani denied any such decision was due until the fate of the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is decided by the Supreme Court (SC). The speculations in the media centred in recent days around the possibility that cabinet ministers who had obtained relief under the NRO would be asked to voluntarily resign, failing which, they would be asked to quit. However, there seems to have been a rethink in the PPP top command. Perhaps part of the reason for the postponement is an attempt to avoid what may have turned out to be a bruising battle between the president and the prime minister, both of whom may have desired their favourites to stay on in the cabinet. With this postponement of any decision, the future of those cabinet members who got relief under the NRO has been squarely placed in the hands of the SC.
A 17-member larger bench of the court is continuing hearings into the NRO. Although it is always risky to go off half-cocked on the basis of remarks made by the honourable judges during proceedings, or even the arguments put forward by counsel, it would be no exaggeration to say that the NRO today has no takers, let alone defenders. The government, after withdrawing the NRO from parliament, has made no great effort even to appoint a legal team for this purpose. Clearly, the PPP has given up on the NRO and decided to let the chips fall as they may. The proceedings reveal the bench’s sentiment that withdrawal of cases under the NRO is not tantamount to a complete pardon. The withdrawal should be seen in the context of clearing the way of those accused on various charges to contest elections, and no more. The tantalising thought remains therefore, that the withdrawn cases may well be revived, especially if the Supreme Court strikes down the NRO as null and void ab initio.
The usual spate of arguments and denials are once again the stuff of the media now that a list of 248 NRO beneficiaries with the amounts allegedly embezzled by them was presented in court by the National Accountability Bureau. Heading the list of notables is none other than the president. His spokesman is at pains to point out that this is a regurgitation of old allegations that were never proved despite 10 long years of efforts by the authorities and were in essence politically motivated cases instituted by the Ehtesab Bureau under Saifur Rehman. Perhaps the presidency finds it necessary to refute these allegations more for moral and political reasons, knowing full well that the president enjoys immunity so long as he holds his high office.
While the country’s expectation may be that the SC will finally lay the ghost of the NRO to rest, the partisanship floating on the surface of this as well as other accountability efforts is difficult to ignore. That has been the fatal flaw in the arrangements of successive governments, which boiled down to using the name of accountability to settle scores with political opponents. That lack of credibility bedevils the debate on the NRO and accountability generally to date. That is why we have argued consistently in these columns that only a non-partisan, independent, impartial accountability regime that prosecutes all and sundry, from the highest to the most humble, without fear or favour, can salvage the muddied garment in which accountability is clothed today. That of course would require a consensus in parliament to create such an accountability body. For the moment at least, parliament and the political forces represented in it seem far too distracted to engage in such a soul-searing exercise.