QUETTA: The Sindh Government had approved a draft bill proposed and prepared by the Advocate-General suggesting that the National Accountability Bureau should be barred from handling the cases of Sindh Government Departments and its employees. The draft bill will be presented before the Sindh Assembly in a day or two for formal legislation of law combating corruption in a modest way.

There was strong resentment against the working and operation of NAB in Sindh and Balochistan where the elected Government established by law had lodged serious complaints against the NAB for taking arbitrary action against the sitting Ministers of Sindh Cabinet, chosen representatives of the people and Government officials and functionaries.

In case of Dr Asim alone and without going into the merit of the case, an impression was deliberately conveyed to the people in general that it was a politically motivated case against him and more powerful people allegedly using the NAB to humiliate him, his senior political colleagues and the entire Sindh Government of the chosen representatives.

Dr Asim was arrested as the NAB sleuths barged into the conference room of a Sindh Government building where the Minister was presiding over an official meeting. The NAB sleuths disrupted the official meeting the Sindh Government and arrested Dr Asim from the spot and whisked him away to an unknown place.

There is an elected Government in Sindh under the Constitution of Pakistan enjoying almost equal powers to the Government at the Centre. At least Sindh being a Federating Unit of Pakistan is not subservient to the Central Government in Islamabad.

It is a parallel and constitutional Government working under the laws of the land. Thus in no way, the employees of the Central Government got any right to dictate their order or take arbitrary action to humiliate the lawful Government by arresting its important Minister at the time when he is presiding over and official meeting.

There was an upheaval in the country following the arbitrary action against the sitting Minister and humiliating the Sindh Government.

The arrogant officers of the NAB did not take official permission from the Sindh Chief Minister, the Chief Executive of the Sindh Province under the Constitution, while raiding the Sindh Government offices and arresting one of the Ministers. The officials applied the laws or jungle while raiding the Government building.

Yet in another case, the NAB officials barged into another Government building and took away a score of files without seeking any permission from the Sindh Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary.

They left no record of important files of the Government—the property of State of Pakistan. They were unlawfully taken away merely because they are from the Central Government and above the law considering Sindh as their colony.

The NAB officials had no courtesy to seek formal permission from the Sindh Chief Secretary and they could have made a request to the Chief Secretary about all the files they wanted for investigation. They failed to make such moves.

Basically, NAB is a political institution created by military dictator Pervez Musharraf to settle scores with his political opponents or bring in all corrupt and dishonest people in politics under his umbrella. Most of the handpicked people, some retired but trusted army officers, were appointed and given high positions in the NAB.

When the NAB was created, it virtually paralyzed the entire civil administration in Balochistan for months and years seeking irrelevant information from all the Government departments in a big way and amid utter confusion. Most of the senior officials of the Balochistan Government were summoned to the NAB Headquarters regularly and without fail and kept them waiting for days and days. It meant to insult the Government officials and create an atmosphere of harassment to achieve the real objective.

Years after when Pervez Musharraf was compelled to hold elections and install representative Governments at the Centre and the province, most of the dubious characters joined his party and NAB stopped chasing them after joining the party of the King. Thus all the pro-establishment people were spared and given a clean chit for obvious reasons.

The Sindh Government is within its rights to frame laws and establish institutions to fight rampant corruption as the NAB disappointed all the smaller provinces with its arbitrary and selective actions.

After the 16^th Constitutional Amendment, the provinces or the Federating Units got the right to frame laws and establish institutions. The KPK Government was first to take the initiative and established its own accountability Commission and dislodged the NAB from the Province.

Now the Sindh Government is following the KPK in approving a bill from the Provincial Parliament to establish a more effective institution fighting corruption. It is expected that the Sindh Assembly will pass the law and it will become an act of the Provincial Parliament.

The Balochistan Government should follow the Sindh and KPK Governments by framing its own laws and establish a new or strengthen the old institution to combat corruption. Balochistan Government should convey a clear message that it wants to defend the provincial rights and wants minimum or no interference in the provincial affairs from the Central Government saying no to be a colony of the petty functionaries.

When the NAB was created by General Pervez Musharraf, 100 per cent officials and functionaries were brought from the other provinces to Balochistan that publicly discriminated the local people to an unacceptable level. Most of them were raw; less qualified and had no experience in conducting investigation or probing any case. Most of the victims of NAB claimed that the official relied on intimidation and using third degree methods in interrogation.

They even humiliated the senior most officials, including Secretaries of the administrative departments of the Government of Balochistan, while seeking irrelevant information and above all without any specific purposes.

Most of the alien officials and functionaries were young and immature to deal with people, including senior politicians and officials. Most of the time, they were found abusing or intimidating the men in custody or under interrogation. Hardly a small percent were experienced and knew their job well.

By all means, accountability is part of law and order which is a Provincial Subject under the Constitution. Thus the Federal Government should withdraw NAB from the smaller provinces from where they are under criticism more bitterly than in other areas. The high profile presence of NAB is always resented in Sindh and Balochistan and it is considered as denial to provincial autonomy and provincial rights.

It was the strong and unwavering public opinion that blocked the NAB from concluding an accord of plea bargain with the former Secretary Finance. It was a mega corruption case and the NAB tried to push up the case on the strange argument that the NAB had recovered so much money. It is irrelevant in our society. It amounts to self praising.

People want that rampant corruption should be eliminated at the earliest and they are not interested that how much money the NAB recovered. The stake is very big which is beyond the imagination of the NAB officials. The stake is Rs 320 billion of public money a year and its major part is being embezzled by very powerful people.  Billions and billions are going to the winds annually under the Public Sector Development Programme for the past four decades and no one is caught to this date. All are innocent and angles. No one is corrupt. A small Union Council got an allocation of billions under the PSDP.