Time for Peace Dividends

By Amir Zia

February 2019

Monthly Hilal

Terrorist sanctuaries have become a thing of the past and after the recent merger of FATA in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, the region is passing through a slow, but steady process of joining the national mainstream. 

From the small round window of Pakistan Army’s Mi-17 helicopter, one could see the vast expanse of barren hills and mountains of North Waziristan – some as high as 8,200 feet. For several minutes, the helicopter – carrying a group of journalists from Islamabad to North Waziristan’s district headquarters Miranshah – flew almost parallel to the ridges of a mighty mountain range on its one side and a vast stretch of rolling land and small hills on the other.
Catching a bird’s eye view of this difficult and unhospitable terrain makes one understand as to why thousands of hardcore local and foreign terrorists once made it their sanctuary. 

The region shares a border of more than 200 kilometers with the war-torn and lawless Afghanistan to its west, Pakistan’s tribal region of Kurram to its north, settled districts of Hangu, Karak and Bannu to its northeast and east respectively, and tribal South Waziristan to its south and southwest.
While North Waziristan’s location and mountainous terrain offered terrorists a “natural habitat,” its once semi-autonomous administrative status along with a unique conservative tribal culture also proved an impediment in establishing state writ over here for decades. Pakistan’s successive governments also respected local customs and traditions of the tribal regions in line with the promise made to their people at the time of independence in 1947. Therefore, North Waziristan along with other areas of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) lagged behind in socio-economic development. 

But now all is changing in Waziristan. Terrorist sanctuaries have become a thing of the past and after the recent merger of FATA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the region is passing through a slow, but steady process of joining the national mainstream. This one can observe by visiting the area and meeting the local populace. Unfortunately, this return of peace in erstwhile FATA has been made target through biased and agenda-driven media use.  
“Pakistan Army has flushed out terrorists and destroyed all their sanctuaries,” Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR), who accompanied the group of journalists working for local and foreign media, told the scribe. “Now the army is spearheading the new important phase of the operation that includes keeping this region clear of terrorists, protecting civilians and rebuilding and developing the basic infrastructure – from roads to markets and schools and playgrounds to hospitals and basic health units.”
“Pakistan Army has performed a feat… while clearing terrorist infested areas, we held them and while holding them, we started the rebuilding process – all simultaneously. Others perform one task at a time,” the DG ISPR said.
As our helicopter touched ground at a base in Miranshah on a crisp Sunday morning on January 27, 2019, I couldn’t help recalling the harrowing tales of violence and brutalities against the local population when local and foreign terrorists used to run amok here.
For years, the terrorists suppressed and terrorized the local population, killing dissenting voices with impunity in North Waziristan. For years, they used this area to plan and execute terror attacks across Pakistan, especially in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was here that they trained and prepared militants, including suicide bombers. It was here that they stored weapons and made bombs. It was in this region where they built a labyrinth of underground tunnels and safe houses, using even mosques and seminaries to further their nefarious designs. These terrorists espoused a narrow and skewed version of Islam and exploited its sacred name to brainwash innocent minds and commit all sort of atrocities, including killing civilians and even children.
According to senior officials of Pakistan Army’s 11 Corps, which has been spearheading the anti-terrorism fight in KP and the tribal region, “the terrorist ideology has lost traction now” and militants belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have moved to sanctuaries in Afghanistan following the beating they took in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched in June 2014.
Since then, Pakistan has come a long way in this fight as the ongoing Operation Radd-ul Fasaad got underway in February 2017 with an aim to eliminate terrorist cells across Pakistan. An estimated 3,350 to 4,200 TTP militants fled to Afghanistan and they are now being supported and patronized by hostile intelligence agencies, officials say.
Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood, Commander 11 Corps, while briefing journalists in Peshawar, said that the army remains at the last stage of its operation. “We are on our way out… the army does not want to stay a day more than required.”
The 11 Corps is the biggest in Pakistan Army and has been active in counter-terrorism operations since 2001-02 when scores of militants from Afghanistan entered the country’s tribal areas and settled there to escape persecution and the bombings by the U.S. and its allied NATO forces.
At least 4,550 officers and soldiers of the 11 Corps have been martyred and more than 16,256 wounded in this 17-year-long conflict. The number of civilian martyrs – the prime target of terrorists in KP province and the defunct FATA – is around 20,922. The number of civilians injured in terror attacks stand at a staggering figure of 32,000 plus, according to the official data.

The number of overall casualties in Pakistan in this long internal war has surpassed 80,000 mark, including both civilians and security personnel, underlining the fact that Pakistanis paid the price of this war through their blood, tears and sweat.
Lt Gen Shaheen said that now people of the conflict areas, like North Waziristan, wanted to go back to their normal lives. “There is a whole generation which has seen nothing but conflict.”
Pakistan tribal areas were ushered in to militancy in 1979 when they became the hub of resistance against the former Soviet Union’s occupation forces in Afghanistan and its backed Kabul regime.
While the Soviet Union is no more and Kabul’s communist regime collapsed back in April 1992, the civil war and militancy continues to haunt Afghanistan and directly affect Pakistan.
According to DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor, Pakistan has a direct stake in Afghanistan’s peace. 

“No country is interested in Afghan peace process more than Pakistan. We want the ongoing reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan to succeed. Therefore, Pakistan is trying its best to facilitate the Afghan peace process. We have no favourites… we support only the Afghan people,” he said, adding that the United States should leave Afghanistan as “a friend of the region” and it should continue to help Kabul to get back on its feet.
“And when the Americans leave, we do not want Afghan turmoil or war being shifted to Pakistan.”
And to prevent such a scenario, Pakistan Army is working day and night to fence its around 2,611 kilometers long international border with Afghanistan. In the areas under 11 Corps’ ambit, 473 kilometers of once porous border has already been fenced out of a total 1,229 kilometers. The remaining fencing will be completed by December 2019.
Officials say that critical part of the fencing is complete, gaps from where terrorists used to infiltrate in and out, have been plugged and cameras and censors are being installed for 24/7 surveillance. New military posts and forts are also being built to beef up the security, they said.
Pakistan maintains that the fencing along its frontiers with Afghanistan is being done only to stop the flow of terrorists and not to prevent people-to-people contact for which official entry points are being upgraded and built. 

Pakistan Army is also engaged in the sensitive operation of demining this rugged region, where terrorists had planted landmines. Also scores of ordnance belonging to the Soviet-era resistance days also remained dumped here – from hand grenades and bombs to shells and improvised explosive devices, which on and off takes lives of civilians, particularly children. “It is a Herculean task. We have cleared 44 percent of the area and working to clear the rest,” said an official, who asked not to be named because of the military protocol.
From a military fort near the Ghulam Khan crossing point, one could see Pakistani positions and posts along the Afghan border for miles. At a distance, Pakistan’s flag fluttered on one lone post located at a stone’s throw distance from the newly constructed fence.
DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor has said the ratio of Pakistani and Afghan posts along the border remains five to one. “But it is understandable. The Afghan side doesn’t have the necessary resources to construct and man its posts as well as to build the necessary infrastructure needed for this kind of security and surveillance available on the Pakistani side.”
Looking from Ghulam Khan Fort into the war-ravaged Afghanistan, one could only pray for the success of the ongoing Afghan peace process – so vital for the people of Afghanistan as well as other regional countries.   

In North Waziristan, while the security situation has improved and threat from militants has receded, it’s the socio-economic issues and development which are now on the front burner. The years of conflict has destroyed the livelihood of most locals, who bank on small businesses, livestock and farming, government jobs, manual labour, mining, cross-border trade and working overseas.
Currently, Pakistan Army is leading the development efforts in the erstwhile FATA in an organized manner, building shopping centers, playgrounds and cricket stadium, reviving or building new educational institutions, healthcare facilities and roads.
Official statistics say that more than 900 development projects have either been completed or are near completion, including more than 250 education institutions, 22 health facilities, several new business hubs having 3,000 shops, 15 warehouses, an agri-park, a pine-nut plant and a number of cold storage houses.
As we drove past the newly built markets and public recreation places, Miranshah gave an impression of normality, though at strategic junctions and places the army personnel stood alert.
Our group of journalists interacted with local shopkeepers, pedestrians and traders at two different markets, where the overwhelming message was of hope, amid great expectations regarding the sustainability of peace and followed by a boom in trade and commercial activities.
Umer Khattab, who runs a public call office at the Noor Market, said that he expects his business to take-off now as peace has been restored and most of the internally displaced people have returned to their homes or are in the process of doing so. “We pray for peace not just here, but in entire Pakistan”
Insafullah, another local said that life was fast returning to normality. “I am happy because of the peace… I am happy that the markets have re-opened… and for all this we remain grateful to the Pakistan Army.”

Shakirullah, who works at a roadside hotel, said he returned to Miranshah around two-and-half year back from Bannu where he was at an IDP camp. “By the grace of Allah, work is going on fine… by the grace of Allah we feel safe and don’t live in fear.”
At the newly-constructed modern Miranshah Complex, only a handful of shops out of 1300 have opened their shutters so far.
“The process of handing over these shops to the new owners has just started and every day five to six shops are opening for business,” said Gul Ayub, who moved to his shop number 3 only a few days back. Most of his racks were still empty, but few of them displayed telephone sets and electronic gadgets.
DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that people of this area have suffered enough. “It is the time to heal their wounds. We are trying our best… but in the mid-to-long run, civilian institutions have to build their capacity. The provincial government has already started work on this after FATA’s merger with KP,” he said.

ENDs

An Underfed Watchdog

By Amir Zia

December 2018

Monthly Newsline

The institution assigned the task of recovering looted wealth from money launderers, loan defaulters and the corrupt, has itself been facing an acute shortage of funds for the past several years, as the former elected government first whittled down, and then suspended what had hitherto been allocated to it: a share of the recovery and reward fund. Additionally, NAB was stopped from conducting reviews of any project worth more than Rs 50 million.

According to sources in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), former finance minister Ishaq Dar first lowered the share of the anti-corruption watchdog to two percent from the eight percent allocated to it when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government came to power in 2013, and then suspended payment even of this approved amount. The reward money was from the around Rs 1,600 million recovered to date from the loan default cases referred to NAB by the State Bank of Pakistan.     

The irony is that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which vows firm action against the corrupt and the return of looted money, has not reversed this decision of its predecessor, the PML-N government. 

The former finance minister and his bosses were apparently unhappy with NAB because of the lingering corruption cases against them, including the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, and the ones regarding their ownership of assets beyond their known sources of income. Thus, according to NAB sources, they wanted to choke the organisation’s funds, to curtail their activities and stymie investigations. 

Government sources say that Chairman NAB, Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal recently had a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, who publicly announced that his administration would strengthen this anti-graft body and provide it with all the necessary funds for its smooth operations. 

However, as per documents available with Newsline, the PTI-led finance ministry rejected the plea for the resumption of the hitherto sanctioned recovery and reward fund. 

“We have recovered over 297 billion rupees of the country’s stolen wealth, which has been deposited in the national exchequer,” said a NAB official, adding “Even if we get what is our due after the fund was cut – i.e. two percent of the recovered amount – it would be in the billions and help us improve our operations without any extra government support.” 

The NAB mandate authorises it to use the recovery and reward fund to hire experts – from leading lawyers to those who specialise in forensic, financial and white collar crime. A portion of this fund is also apportioned for the repair and renovation of NAB buildings, infrastructure and vehicles.

Earlier, when it received eight per cent of the recoveries, NAB would pay two million to the family of an employee if he died while in service, and gift 55,000 rupees for the wedding of the children of employees serving from grade 1 to 14. These, the immediate release of funds for the funerals of NAB workers, and one month’s basic salary for them as an annual honorarium, disclose NAB officials, have all been stopped now. “This considering it is the government’s top anti-graft body and it is the government’s responsibility to take care of its employees,” said one official.

He added that NAB’s senior officials, especially those assigned to investigations and prosecution, as well as those in senior management positions, have to operate within strict disciplinary measures, which include diligently following a security protocol, given the threats to NAB and its employees. “But even our hardship allowance remains suspended since 2013,” he claimed.

“We have to inform the bureau about our movements; we can’t even go out to have lunch, unlike other government servants,” he added, conceding however, that lunch is served to NAB employees at a subsidised rate of 20 per cent.

The official continued, “There appears to be a continuing deliberate discriminatory attitude towards NAB employees by successive political governments who probably feel that we are, or will be, going after them. How can we attract the best minds if a NAB prosecutor’s maximum gross salary is 120,000 rupees?”

It is true that compared to NAB, finance ministry officials get six to seven additional basic pays annually, as do Federal Board of Revenue employees. And this unofficial discriminatory attitude towards NAB continues, despite the fact that Pakistan remains the only country in the world, which, according to Transparency International, improved its corruption perception, recently rising to the 116th position from the 175th.

Yet, NAB officials say that they have high expectations from the PTI government. They are hopeful it will support efforts to improve NAB’s human resources and provide them better facilities. This cannot, however, be done without an added allocation of funds – and therein lies the rub.

ENDs

The Hour of Reckoning?

By Amir Zia

December 2018

Monthly Newsline

The battle to rid Pakistan of corruption will prove as murky and controversial as the corruption it is riddled with until the PTI government ensures that the process of accountability is accepted as transparent by the country and the world.

When the disqualified former premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Mohammed Safdar filed applications in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the suspension of their sentences in the Avenfield Case, senior officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and some hawks in the legal fraternity believed that they had little chance of walking out of prison anytime soon.  

But once the hearing, with the two-member IHC bench – comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb – proceeded, the judges’ remarks about the accountability court’s line of questioning and judgement clearly indicated what the outcome of the case would be – well before their decision was formally announced.

The NAB’s prosecution team members, led by Akram Qureshi, also made the defence lawyers’ task easier by their apparently non-serious attitude and lack of preparation. At times, the prosecution failed to respond to simple queries made by the honourable judges, such as the price of the Avenfield properties, asking the court to obtain this information from Google.

As a result, Sharif, Maryam and Safdar – awarded jail terms on July 6, of 10, seven years and one year respectively, on July 6 –– walked out of prison on Sept 19, after spending barely 69 days behind bars.

The 41-page IHC verdict, which stated that the accountability court judgment “may not be ultimately sustainable,” came as a blow for NAB. The verdict read, “The petitioners were alleged to have acquired Avenfield Apartments by corrupt, dishonest or illegal means… but the prosecution has not brought evidence in respect of [section 9 (a) (iv) NAO, 1999] [4]. So the accused are acquitted under that section of law.” The IHC judgment added that the bureau did not challenge the said acquittal. 

Raja Aamir Abbas, a leading lawyer and NAB’s former deputy prosecutor general, blamed poor case management for the suspension of the Sharif family’s jail term. “There were simple queries. Every piece of evidence was available in the NAB record and the JIT (joint investigation team) report… it was the bad handling by prosecutors, who did not bother to check the record and assist the court,” he contended.

Shah Khawar, a former judge of the Lahore High Court, too, maintained that the Avenfield case was wrecked by the NAB prosecutors. According to him, the defence lawyers team was strong and included an adequate number of researchers and experts. “Compared to the defence team, the overworked and underpaid NAB team lacked the necessary support – from logistics to research,” he said.

NAB critics say that going by the agency’s ongoing dismal performance, all the high-profile politicians, accused and even convicted of corruption by the lower courts, are likely to get acquittals from the superior courts, just as has been the case scores of times in the past.

Another blow for NAB came in the much-publicised Hudaibiya Paper Mills scam of 1.2 billion rupees, in which the Sharif family also got a clean chit from the Supreme Court. On October 9, the three-judge special Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, threw out the NAB petition against the rejection of the plea to reopen this 18-year-old case.  

These two back-to-back judgments favouring Nawaz Sharif and his family members came as a relief to the besieged ousted premier, who after facing seemingly bleak prospects, seemed to have got a chance to regain some lost ground. NAB’s inability to secure convictions from the superior courts of these major political players, despite what appeared to be watertight cases against them, is also a setback to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s dream of a “Naya Pakistan,” of which the accountability of the corrupt was a cornerstone. 

However, NAB – Pakistan’s top anti-graft body – is in a double bind. On one hand it is being criticised for poor investigations and prosecution in mega-scams – such as those involving Sharif and his family – and on the other, it is being accused by the opposition of spearheading a “victimisation campaign” against those who have fallen out of the favour of the powers-that-be.

The attacks on NAB are understandable: it has been assigned the most perilous task of bringing to justice the country’s most powerful citizens – the politically-connected super-rich who are involved in white collar crime. These influential individuals have deep pockets and are able to hire teams of the most expensive lawyers, by means fair or foul and also manage and manipulate the media.  

In an ironic twist of perception, if NAB was accused of inaction during the days of its former chairman, Chaudhry Qamar-uz-Zaman, especially against those in the high echelons of power, it is now being accused of conducting a political witch-hunt after actively pursuing cases against the corrupt. 

According to official sources, the hue and cry against NAB has intensified because many politicians belonging to various opposition and ruling parties are on its radar. A document available with Newsline reveals there is a list of at least 80 influential people, including some senior bureaucrats, against whom references have either been filed, or cases are at the investigation or inquiry stages. 

The list of those under the NAB microscope includes former prime ministers Shaukat Aziz, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and former chief ministers of Balochistan, Sindh, KP and Punjab, including Aslam Khan Raisani, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Pervez Khattak and Shehbaz Sharif, respectively. The names of former finance ministers, Shaukat Tareen and Ishaq Dar, former defence minister, Khawaja Asif, former advisor to the PM, Ameer Muqam, former law minister, Babar Awan, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, and former petroleum minister, Dr Asim Hussain, also feature in this list. 

And it is not just NAB that is conducting enquiries. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) too is handling some high profile corruption cases, including the one involving former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. The siblings are being investigated by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in a case relating to operating fake accounts and making fictitious bank transactions worth Rs 35 billion in connivance with the CEOs of major banks. Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, widely believed to be close to Zardari, has also been arrested in this case.  

No wonder all the opposition parties are closing ranks to blunt the accountability process and are particularly targeting NAB, which is acting as the vanguard in the drive against corruption.

Yet, it is also a fact that Pakistani investigation institutions have capacity issues, which stem mainly from the financial constraints they face in hiring top lawyers and experts (see box: An Underfed Watchdog). However, the opposition leaders portray NAB as a flawed institution, which they “criminally neglected” to fix when they were in power. 

“NAB’s biggest flaw is that it is not above board,” said Dr Musaddik Malik, a Senator belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “Justice must be seen – practically, factually and empirically – but the perception about NAB is that it is witch-hunting,” he contended.

Responding to the criticism, a senior NAB official, upon request of anonymity, said that his organisation’s work remains “100 percent transparent,” and that there is a computerised monitoring and evaluation system to ensure check-and-balances at every step. “NAB is not a political tool,” insisted the NAB official. “NAB is the target of a smear campaign because it is taking on the corrupt politicians and their operators, who have strong allies in every section of society – from the media to the administrative and political power structure.”  

As NAB pursues some mega scandals worth billions of rupees from Karachi to Khyber and tightens the noose around some political bigwigs, including the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) president, Zardari and several of his aides, the attacks against the agency have become more ferocious. 

As regards the Avenfield case, NAB sources say that its prosecution team contested the case on merit before the IHC, but the court gave an unprecedentedly and inexplicably long verdict in what was a simple bail case which required a judgement of just a paragraph or two.

“Overall our conviction rate is 77 per cent – the highest compared to any other investigation agency,” he said, adding, “But what can we do if cases keep dragging on in the courts. Currently we have more than 1,200 cases pending before 26 accountability courts, which have been going on for the last four to five years.”

In granting bail to the accused in the Avenfield case, NAB prosecutors maintain, the IHC went beyond its mandate. The agency, in fact, also challenged the IHC verdict before a Supreme Court three-member special bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar. At the case hearing, NAB prosecutors submitted that the IHC prejudiced the prosecution’s case by holding that the trial court’s judgment suffered from glaring defects and so the sentences given to the accused should not be sustained.

The NAB petition read, “Whether the Honourable Division Bench of the Islamabad High Court has not fallen in error by passing certain observations…which have caused serious prejudice to the cause of the Petitioner-Bureau and may have a very adverse effect while arguing the main Appeal No. 221/2018 pending before the Honourable Islamabad High Court, Islamabad.” 

Former High Court judge, Shah Khawar admits that the IHC’s 41-page order in this case was extraordinary, and perhaps the longest in judicial history in a bail petition. And senior lawyers say that it is rare for a convict to get bail if awarded a 10-year jail term, as was the situation in Sharif’s case. 

NAB sources and independent lawyers meanwhile, maintain that Avenfield was an open and shut case. According to them, there is ample evidence to corroborate that the Sharifs owned flats in Avenfield since 1993, not 2006 as claimed by them, but the accused just proved lucky. 

There is no disputing that the two offshore companies – Nielsen Enterprises Ltd and Nescoll Ltd, linked to the Sharif family – own four luxury flats in Avenfield House, London, numbering 16, 16-A, 17 and 17-A, all situated on one floor and converted into one big house. However, what is under dispute, is the time frame of these purchases.

Included in the list of 80…

1) Syed Murad Ali Shah (CM Sindh) Misuse of authority in STEVTA case.

2) Agha Siraj Durrani (Speaker, Sindh Assembly) Inquiry into illegal assets and illegal appointments.

3) Pir Sibghatullah Rashdi (former minister) Inquiry in illegal allotment of plots.

4) Jam Khan Shoro (former minister) Inquiry in corruption and illegal allotment of plots.

5) Liaquat Jatoi (former minister) Inquiry in assets case.

6) Babar Ghori (former minister for ports and shipping) Investigation in illegal appointments in KPT.

7) Ghulam Haider Jamali (former IG Sindh) Investigation in corruption and corrupt practices.

8) Manzoor Qadir (DG SBCA) Reference filed in corruption.

9) Manzoor Wassan (former minister) Assets beyond known sources of income.

10) Akram Durrani (former CM, KP) Inquiry in misuse of authority.

11) Sardar Sanaullah Zehri (former CM, Balochistan) Inquiry in assets beyond known sources of income.

12) Mushtaq Raisani (former secretary finance) Caught red-handed and recovered Rs. 67 crore of

corruption money.

13) Shaukat Aziz (former PM) Inquiry in assets beyond known sources of income.

14) Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani (former PM) Reference: OGRA corruption scandal.

15) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (former PM) Inquiry in assets beyond known sources of income.

16) Chaudhary Pervaiz Ilahi (former CM, Punjab) Inquiry in assets beyond known sources of income.

17) Zulfiqar Bukhari (Special Assistant to the PM) Inquiry in offshore company case.

18) Babar Awan (former minister for law) Reference filed in delay in Nandipur project.

19) Lt General (R) Saeed-uz-Zafar (former Reference filed in Royal Palm Case.

chairman, Pakistan Railways)

20) Major General (R) Hamid Hassan Butt Reference filed in Royal Palm Case.

             (former general manager, Pakistan Railways)

The Sharifs first bought flat no. 17 through Nescoll Limited in June 1993, followed by the purchase of flats 16 and 16-A on July 31, 1995. Flat 17-A was the last to be bought on July 23, 1996. The Sharif family also owns flat 12-A in Avenfield House, but it was bought through Flagship Investment Limited – a firm registered in the United Kingdom, with Hasan Nawaz Sharif as one of its directors.

NAB sources contend that while formulating their judgement, the IHC overlooked the attested letter from the British Virgin Islands authorities, which declared Maryam as beneficiary owner of these properties. In 2013, in his declaration before the Election Commission, Nawaz Sharif had shown Maryam as his dependent. Then how, ask NAB officials, could she be a beneficiary owner of these apartments way back in the 1990s? They maintain that the burden of proof remains on the Sharif family. Where did they get the money to buy these properties, what was the money trail, etc?  NAB officials also contend that the IHC overlooked the Calibri font saga and the fact that Maryam had herself declared that she does not own these properties.

According to Raja Aamir Abbas, given such solid evidence, questions must be raised about the prosecutors’ performance before the IHC bench. Some lawyers suggest that the Prosecutor General, NAB, should be held accountable because of his poor selection of lawyers.

“It seems that NAB has become a club of retired judges,” said one lawyer, who asked not to be named. He added that the NAB chairman must find out whether any nepotism was done in the selection of lawyers by the special prosecutor.

Owing in part to the legal wrangling and media hype on the merits and demerits of the Avenfied case, and on account of other high- profile cases it is pursuing involving the country’s rich, famous and powerful, NAB is itself now also under the microscope.

A sense of unease and nervousness prevails among the first tier leaders of the major parties, which have intensified following statements by Prime Minister Imran Khan that he will not spare any of the corrupt, while his Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has repeatedly said in his brazen statements about the opposition, that at least 50 politicians will soon be in jail.

With accountability increasingly a thorny political issue, a group of high-powered politicians want this process to come to a halt and the country to move on. Imran Khan and his followers, meanwhile, are focused on increasing the heat on the corrupt. This will inevitably sharpen the political divide and create further polarisation in an already unstable and fragile democratic system. Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly asserted that the cases currently being pursued are all old and that the PTI government has yet to file a case against the corrupt.

With corruption now a buzzword in politics, a halt in the accountability process, or the system’s inability to attain the convictions of those seen as corrupt, will only shake the confidence of the masses with regard to the democratic dispensation. And so, the heavy burden of keeping the accountability process on course remains with NAB to bear.

According to NAB’s official record, it has arrested 503 people from October 11, 2017 to September 30, 2018, under its current Chairman, Justice (Retd.) Javed Iqbal. During this period, the record shows, the agency deposited more than Rs 2,580 million in the national exchequer after recovering this money from corrupt individuals and groups. “These figures speak volumes about NAB’s performance,” said the official.

That notwithstanding, NAB critics say that the accountability process remains lopsided and that only political opponents are targeted, particularly PML-N and PPP leaders.

NAB’s image took another hit when it presented Dr Mujahid Kamran, a former vice chancellor of the Punjab University, and four other former colleagues of his, in handcuffs in the court in a corruption case. This episode was condemned by civil society, and prompted the Supreme Court to take suo-moto action against NAB.   

Dr Musaddik Malik of the PML-N says he believes NAB’s accountability is selective. “PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif was arrested at the investigation stage of the (Aashiana) housing scheme case, but there has hardly been any development vis-a-vis other scams, such as the multiple million rupee National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) and the Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI) ones. He continued, asking, “And why has Babar Awan not been arrested even after the filing of a reference against him?”

Meanwhile, both PML-N and PPP leaders now say that they erred by failing to reform NAB and introducing some oversight to its operations.

Former information minister and key PPP leader, Qamar Zaman Kaira said that his party’s position was clear on NAB from day one: i.e. that it was created to victimise opponents and to force politicians to change their loyalties.  

Dr Malik added that NAB laws are draconian since there is no recourse available once the agency initiates an accountability process against an individual, putting the burden of proving his/her innocence on the accused.

NAB, established by former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in November 1999 – a month after his bloodless coup – replaced the infamous Ehtesab Commission led by former senator Saif-ur Rehman, Sharif’s close aide.

NAB, initially led by Syed Mohammed Amjad, a serving military general, won accolades when it began the accountability process, but within a short span of time, the military-led government fell into the trap of pragmatic politics. The result was selective accountability, in which many politicians were given a clean chit once they switched camps.

Even Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf’s chief nemesis, was granted relief from NAB as it was not allowed to pursue cases against him, including the one about the Hudaibiya scandal, which was eventually quashed by the Lahore High Court in 2014. To add to its waning efficiency and efficacy, it took 1295 days for NAB to move an appeal against the LHC judgment, raising many questions about its independence and autonomy.   

Kaira acknowledged that NAB has done well in regard to loan recoveries, but its role remains controversial when it comes to the accountability of politicians. He stated, “When the PPP was in power, we wanted to improve and empower NAB, but the PML-N did not support us. The PPP wants NAB to refrain from selective accountability. And we are not the only one saying this. Other parties, as well as the Supreme Court, have also raised questions about NAB.” The PML-N’s Dr Malik admits that a lack of trust between the two major parties prevented them from cooperating on NAB, which, he concedes, was a big mistake. 

NAB officials, meanwhile, reject the charges levelled by the mainstream parties that only the PML-N and the PPP are being targeted, and emphatically maintain their operation remains unbiased and even-handed.

Explaining why many publicly touted cases seem to have gone off the radar, a NAB official disclosed, “Now we cannot share the findings of our inquiries and investigations because the Supreme Court has barred us from doing so as it often results in a media trial.” However, he added that cases against all the individuals involved in financial irregularities are at different stages and they are all being aggressively followed.

NAB officials say that compared to the past, when the executive authority tried to create obstacles in their investigations, the PTI government is helpful. The prime minister has indicated that there will be no interference in NAB operations, because it is an independent body. And, they cite the case of Babar Awan, a key PTI leader, who was asked to resign as soon as NAB moved a reference against him. This, they say, is a good omen.

However, some NAB officials admitted that the issue of capacity vis-a-vis the NAB’s investigation and prosecution operations are a challenge. Said one source, “The powerful accused hire the best lawyers, paying millions of rupees in fees, but NAB is unable to hire any top experts and lawyers because of financial constraints.”   

For example, the maximum gross salary of a NAB prosecutor is no higher than 120,000 rupees. Some special prosecutors do get higher ruminations in a few cases, but even their fee remains peanuts compared to what the powerful corrupt elite can offer their lawyers – ranging from 20 to 40 million rupees, and sometimes even higher per case.

NAB officials say that their institution has strict standard operating procedures, which fix a time-frame of 10 months to verify each complaint, conduct an inquiry, carry out an investigation and file a reference.

NAB officers are given two months for complaint verification, during which only the complainant is called and his affidavit taken. Over the next four months, an inquiry is conducted during which both, the complainant and the accused, are called. And then, if the inquiry warrants a proper investigation, another four months are allocated for this process. 

Asked about the arrest of Shehbaz Sharif at the inquiry stage, which raised many eyebrows, NAB sources claimed that while the former Punjab chief minister appeared before the NAB authorities when summoned, he remained uncooperative with investigators. “If the question was about apples, he would talk about oranges,” said a senior NAB official. “The NAB chairman had the power to have him arrested,” he added.

However, another NAB official admitted that restraint could perhaps have been shown in this particular case since Shehbaz was willing to appear before the investigators. “The PML-N has gained because of Shehbaz’s arrest, while the credibility of NAB is being questioned,” he said.

Indeed, it appears, in high-profile political cases, the optics are important. A former NAB official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that there have been cases when flaws in the investigation and prosecution have deliberately been left, which benefit the accused once the case reaches the superior courts. “This is often done by design, and sometimes by default,” he disclosed.

While some major political parties want to do away with NAB altogether, or curtail its powers by introducing parliamentary oversight, and to continue the bipartisan appointment of the NAB chairman – done jointly by the leaders of the house and opposition —  there are suggestions from independent quarters that this institution should be brought under the umbrella of the judiciary. There are also talks underway between the PTI and the opposition parties to introduce reforms in NAB. 

“How can the leader of the house and the leader of the opposition appoint anyone to such a key position if they are themselves under investigation, or in fear of it in the days to come, as is the case for both, Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif,” said Raja Aamir Abbas. He added that the PTI government must think of ways of making NAB more independent and autonomous if it is sincere about holding the corrupt accountable, and remove the procedural flaw in the appointment of the NAB chairman. He suggested that the appointment should be left to the judiciary.  Abbas referred to Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, the predecessor of the current NAB chairman, who was known for his inaction against the Sharifs and their federal and provincial governments, in this regard, reiterating that such anomalies must be removed.

 There is also a need to restructure NAB, maintained Abbas, and to provide it with the financial resources to hire the best human resources to pursue major cases. Raja Aamir Abbas underlined the need to appoint people on merit and of doing away with the system of plea bargains.

However, NAB officials defend the plea-bargain system, saying that it is as good as conviction without keeping convicts in prison. They contend that government officials who are found culpable in cases, will be barred from holding any office for at least a period of 10 years. Private citizens, meanwhile, will not be eligible to acquire bank loans.   

NAB officials also argue against the proposal that a suspect should only be arrested after approval from court. They say the proposal is flawed because it allows the accused the space to manipulate and misuse the judicial system to evade arrest and accountability.

In a nutshell, if Imran Khan is committed to holding the corrupt accountable, his government will have to give NAB more bite, powers, and independence, while simultaneously introducing judicial reforms to ensure speedy trials. 

The question is, will the PTI be able to do the needful for its much-vaunted “Naya Pakistan,” given the fact that its legal team comprises tried and tested old faces – from the borrowed law minister, Farogh Naseem of the MQM, to the Attorney General, Anwar Mansoor Khan, who served in the same position after he was was selected by Asif Ali Zardari during the PPP’s tenure.

The battle to rid Pakistan of corruption will prove as murky and controversial as the corruption it is riddled with until the PTI government ensures that the process of accountability is accepted as transparent by the country and the world.

Ends

The Outsiders?

By Amir Zia

October 2018

Monthly Newsline

“If we have to fight extremism and intolerance, then the work starts with the Constitution, which needs amendments ensuring equal rights to all citizens irrespective of faith or religion...”

That the outrage and dismay generated by the removal of world-renowned economist Atif Rehman Mian from the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) set up by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) barely a month  ago has more or less died down, is a victory for the  Islamic parties and their allies. They had forced the government to remove Atif Mian from this post – an official body – since he belongs to the proscribed Ahmadi faith, even though constitutionally there is no bar on such an appointment.

Now barring an occasional statement or a tweet taking a dig at the way the PTI government caved into the pressure exerted by fundamentalist, puritan forces on the issue, it is business as usual in the Islamic Republic, where other pressing problems and controversies have engaged social media and political activists. But the challenge of religious extremism, discrimination and intolerance toward religious minorities and smaller subgroups within Muslims, remains all-too real in our society, and continues to balloon with every passing day.

Although the intensity of this discrimination, victimisation and bias varies from region to region and is more pronounced against certain specific minority religious groups and  Muslim sects than others, the reality remains that the vast majority of Pakistani Muslims are tolerant,  and have no issue with people belonging to other faiths and sects.     

The case of Pakistani-American, Atif Mian – a professor of economics and public policy at the prestigious Princeton University – highlights the way a person belonging to a religious minority, particularly of the Ahmadi faith, can be targeted even at the highest level, in violation of the basic spirit of our Constitution. Article 27 of the Constitution states that “no citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against… on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth.”

And despite all the indignation expressed by the enlightened and educated segment of Pakistan, this sad incident of discrimination against Atif Mian won’t, almost certainly, be the last one in the country, where organised radical Islamic groups have proved umpteen times that they can, and do dictate policy to the mainstream political parties and the government, as well as dominate the national narrative at their whim.

For a person of the international stature of Atif Mian, being ousted from the honorary position of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) is perhaps a small matter with no direct impact on his life. But his removal is a huge, damaging symbolic blow to Pakistan’s image across the world – and sends an alarming message to Pakistani citizens: this is not the state envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam.

Following Atif Mian’s removal from the EAC, there is an even more palpable sense of fear and uncertainty in the hearts and minds of members of religious minorities in Pakistan, especially those belonging to the lower classes, and the sub-groups and sects within the Muslims who are not as empowered as Atif Mian, or do not have the option of migrating to offshore safe havens. These men and women face discrimination, hate and bias in various forms almost daily, and sometimes pay with their lives at the hands of religiously-motivated extremists. 

However, the most targeted community in Pakistan remains the Ahmadis – declared non-Muslims by the Parliament in September 1974 when the founder of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the then Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was in power. After being declared a religious minority, the Ahmadi issue should have been settled once and for all. But the Islamic parties kept up the pressure, demanding that members of this proscribed group themselves accept that they are non-Muslims. The result: a continuing hate campaign against the Ahmadis, resulting sometimes in violent attacks on their places of worship and neighourhoods.

“Ahmadis are the most persecuted community in Pakistan,” says veteran human rights activist and former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Zohra Yusuf. “People are even afraid to offer lip-service asking they be given their rights,” she said, highlighting the brazenly hostile attitude and malice towards this community in society in general.

The PTI government had to stage a hasty retreat on the Atif Mian issue presumably because this could have opened an unnecessary front in the opening days of its government. As it is, some members of the mainstream opposition parties joined hands with religious groups on this issue, with some supposed secularists, slamming Atif Mian’s appointment, both inside and outside Parliament. The Ahmadi issue is considered too explosive to be taken lightly by any government because of its potential to evoke violent passions across the country. It is a hot potato no one wants to touch and on which religious parties alone have the final say. No wonder every government has shied away even from ensuring that Ahmadi citizens of the state are provided their basic constitutional rights.  

“For Ahmadis, conditions are not improving; they are going from bad to worse,” says Saleem Ud Din, spokesman of the Jama’at Ahmadiyya Pakistan. “Our targeting continues – from discriminatory state policy to mob attacks … if a decision on Atif Mian’s appointment can be reversed, imagine the plight of common Ahmadis. No other community is being isolated and targeted like us. Even during the election process, our names were included in separate lists rather than in joint lists with other voters. This discrimination was only with the Ahmadis.”

According to figures shared by the Jama’at Ahmadiyya, since 1984, at least 264 Ahmadis have been murdered in hate incidents. In 2017, four Ahmadis were murdered, while in 2018 one person belonging to this community has been killed so far. A number of Ahmadiyya places of worship have also been attacked or burned down over the years.   

Saleem Ud Din said that being “law-abiding citizens, his community members respect the Constitution. “The Constitution has declared us non-Muslims, but there are forces which want to define our faith on our behalf, which is unacceptable.”

Leaders of the Ahmadiyya Jama’at complain that hate propaganda is also rampant against them, especially in the Urdu-language media in which 3,936 news items and 532 editorial write-ups were published against their community in just one year.     

The Ahmadis are persecuted in a systematic manner and allowed little space in society. All shades of Muslim sects in Pakistan, with scores of differences among themselves, remain united in their anti-Ahmadi theological discourse and teachings.

While the Ahmadi community remains the most persecuted, life is also difficult for other religious minorities and sects within Muslims.

Take the case of the Shiite Muslim Hazaras in Balochistan. They have lost more than 1,900 members of their community in terrorist violence, mainly in Quetta, since 1999, while as many as 2700 have been injured, according to Dawood Agha, president, Balochistan Shia Conference.

From hit-and-run gun attacks to massive suicide bombings, Hazaras have suffered it all. But organised attacks and violence against Shias per se has also intensified since 2003, when Pakistan became embroiled in the war on terrorism.

Dawood Agha says that the targeting and persecution of Hazaras was not state policy, but the acts of non-state actors, who also are locked in a bloody conflict with state institutions. “Pakistan is the victim of a proxy war between Shia Iran and the Wahabis, backed by Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries…The Iranian revolution of 1979 and the Afghan revolution of 1978 introduced the trend of organised violence in Pakistan by non-state actors.” 

Violence in Quetta is not directed against the Hazaras because of their ethnicity, but because of their sect. There are more than 800 houses of Sunni Hazaras in Satellite Town, Quetta – a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood – but none of them have been targeted, Agha said.

“The state is supportive… a number of our youngsters serve in the armed forces and the police. There is no discrimination on this count.”

After hitting a peak between 2003-15, the violence against Hazaras is witnessing a downward trend as the security forces launched a string of operations against militants belonging to the violent Sunni Muslim sectarian groups, killing a number of their top operatives. Yet, the challenge of countering the extremist mindset remains, as there is little check on hate-speech and hate-literature across the country, and both, the mosques’ pulpits and seminaries continue to spew propaganda against this or that Muslim sect or religious minority.  

Dr. Jaipal Chhabria, president of the Pakistan Hindu Forum and a local leader of the ruling PTI in Karachi, says that the media, curriculum, certain laws and politics of expediency – all contribute to creating an environment which remains discriminatory and biased against religious minorities.

Take the law-making first.

Earlier, the constitution only barred a non-Muslim from becoming president of Pakistan. “But after the passage of the 18th Amendment, a non-Muslim cannot now become either prime minister or even the chief of the Election Commission,” says Chhabria.

And who were the main movers of the 18th Amendment? he asks rhetorically, responding that supposedly progressive politicians, including Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party, Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party and even the self-avowed secular Awami National Party agreed to it. “There was not even one dissenting note from among them.”

For the nearly eight million-strong Hindu population of Pakistan, most of them living in Sindh, the biggest issue is the abduction and forced marriages of their girls – many below 18-years-old. “Hindu girls are abducted and presented in the court several days after the incident, during which they are forcibly converted to Islam. We say child marriages should not be allowed as per law and abductees presented in the court within 24 hours; not after days and weeks,” says Chhabria.

But the bigger problem for Pakistani Hindus is their general negative portrayal in the media, textbooks and the overall national discourse. 

“When the media here criticises Narendra Modi,” says Chhabria, “it criticises him as a Hindu, not as the Indian Prime Minister. In the textbooks, we are dubbed ‘kafirs,’ while in movies and dramas, Hindus are always portrayed as villains – ‘Hindu baniyas.’ No Hindu has ever been portrayed as patriotic.” He continues, “Similarly, there is discrimination in jobs… Hindus are never considered fit for civil awards though we have many poets, writers, doctors, teachers and sportspeople in our ranks.Muslims living in non-Muslim countries get equal rights. They vote and run in elections like any other citizen, but in Pakistan, the religious minorities only get reserved seats. How can a Hindu or Christian elected on a reserved seat speak candidly if he stands indebted to the party leader for getting him into the house?”

Zohra Yusuf of the HRCP says that the state cannot officially pursue a policy of discrimination and persecution because of the growing awareness about such issues as well as international compulsions. “There is a lot of improvement, but at the same time a lot needs to be done to implement or improve laws as well as to change the mindset of the people,” she maintains.

Professor Anjum James Paul, chairman of the Pakistan Minorities’ Teachers Association, however, says that Pakistan’s Constitution is full of contradictions regarding the rights of religious minorities. “The Constitution grants citizens’ equal rights in one article, but then there are several others which stand in negation of basic rights… this is the world’s only constitution which protects just one religion and denies the same right to others.

“If we have to fight extremism and intolerance, then the work starts with the Constitution, which needs amendments ensuring equal rights to all citizens irrespective of faith or religion,” he contends.

Paul, who teaches at a college in the town of Samandri in Punjab, said that the syllabi taught at the schools and colleges also need to be reviewed because of the negative portrayal of other faiths in textbooks. Then there are deep-rooted social taboos, which make the life of the religious minorities, including Christians, miserable, he maintains.

“For instance,” he says “a Muslim can sell ‘pakoras, but a Christian can’t… many Muslims won’t buy edibles cooked by him. There are scores of other basic professions which a Christian cannot go for… a Christian can’t be a butcher or a cook.”

He added that attacks on churches and other places of worship of non-Muslims also occur off and on, and often, the culprits walk out of prison within a couple of years – or less – even if convicted, and then are welcomed as heroes in society. 

Centuries-old biases and prejudices clearly exist in 21st century Pakistan. They can only be scrapped through cautious and sustained efforts, primarily in the field of education and through advocacy campaigns geared towards building a national narrative for an all-inclusive Pakistan.

But the task of changing the national mindset is easier said than done as extremist ideas find a perfect breeding and dissemination ground here. This, thanks to successive governments, who paid a lot of lip-service to the cause of reforming madrassas, but backed out each time due to the stiff resistance put up by clerics.

Similarly, changing and improving the curriculum has up to now not been seriously put on the agenda. All the half-hearted attempts in this regard have witnessed a reversal almost from their outset, because of the opposition by the orthodox forces.

Despite the fact that Pakistan has for several years remained locked in the war against terrorism and lost thousands of civilians and security personnel in the process, past governments failed to curb hate speech and literature, which constitutes the extremist mindset and is considered the first step leading to terrorism. The broader fight against terrorism cannot be won without defeating the extremist mindset.

A case in point remains the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) formulated after the barbaric attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar on December 16, 2014 in which more than 150 people, mostly children, were killed.

While the security forces took care of the operational side of the NAP, cracking down on terrorist groups, the then civilian government did not take ownership of any kind and failed to implement any of the reforms suggested in it, including those for madrassas, education, police and judicial reforms, which were vital for the success in the war against terrorism in the mid to long run.

Will the PTI government – committed to making a ‘naya’ (new) Pakistan – succeed in granting and protecting the rights of the religious minorities and subgroups within Muslims? So far the opening days of the government don’t inspire much confidence, or engender any hope on this score. So far the issue is not even part of the national discourse. The swift ouster of Atif Mian from the Economic Advisory Council indicates only too graphically how the old ways are still the only ways being followed in the ‘new’ Pakistan.

ENDS