Business Recorder Editorial Feb 26, 2019

LHC censure of NAB

In its detailed judgement on the bail petitions of Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif, a Lahore High Court (LHC) two-member bench has delivered what amounts to an indictment of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for levelling allegations of misuse of authority, misappropriation of funds and receiving illegal gratification, commission and kickbacks that are unsubstantiated on the touchstone of the law, rules or the documentary evidence/record. The LHC had granted post-arrest bail to Shahbaz Sharif on February 14, 2019 in the Ashiana Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases through a short order. In the Ashiana Housing Scheme case, the LHC found that the allegation that Shahbaz Sharif had the contract of M/s Chaudhry Abdul Latif and Sons cancelled is not supported by the record because the contract was never cancelled; rather the matter was settled through a written agreement with the mutual consent of the parties. The court observed that there was no mention in the record of the former chief minister Punjab being a signatory to the mutual agreement signed by the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shahid Latif and contractor Chaudhry Amir Latif. Another former PLDC CEO Tahir Khurshid, the star witness of NAB, had not uttered a single word in his statement to the effect that he was pressurised by Shahbaz Sharif to cancel the contract in question. The LHC rejected another allegation that Shahbaz Sharif illegally transferred the housing project from the PLDC to the Lahore Development Authority since this was done with the approval of the PLDC Board of Directors. The bench queried the insistence of NAB that the project should have been executed in government mode instead of a public-private partnership when the latter is lawful under the Public Private Partnership Act 2014. The LHC pointed out that the current government too has launched a project for the construction of 5,000,000 houses under the same public-private mode but no objection to that has been raised so far by NAB. Besides, the chief minister had the authority under the Punjab government Rules of Business 2011to transfer any subject or matter from one department to any other. NAB failed to establish any relationship between Shahbaz Sharif and the owners of M/s Paragon City for whom the initial contract of the housing scheme was allegedly cancelled, a fact conceded by the NAB special prosecutor. Even the subsequent contract awarded to M/s Casa Developers was cancelled about six months before the first complaint was received by NAB. Not a single inch of state land has been transferred to any person/contractor to date. Not a single affectee of the 61,000 claimed by NAB has made any statement before it. Prima facie there is not a single affectee because no amount from any person pertaining to the allotment of any plot has so far been received except the non-refundable fee of Rs 1,000 for an application form, which has been deposited in the treasury. In the Ramzan Sugar Mills case, the LHC said the drain constructed by the government in Chiniot at a cost of Rs 200 million benefited the public at large and not just the mills. No evidence has been found on record of any kickbacks or embezzlement of public funds.

A perusal of the detailed judgement glaringly exposes NAB’s lack of knowledge of the law, rules, and the need to substantiate through evidence or the record the allegations it has been freely bandying about. These two are not the only cases where such free-wheeling methods have been found. The fact that the normative principle of being considered innocent until proved guilty having been overturned in the NAB Ordinance 1999 to lay the onus for proof of innocence on the accused seems to have given NAB the confidence to freely fling allegations without the rigour normally required to prove them in any court of law. Last but not least, the overwhelming weight of NAB cases having been framed against the opposition leaders strengthens the worrying perception that NAB is conducting a witch-hunt motivated by purely political considerations rather than the sober task of uprooting corruption that is its mandate.