Pakistan’s accountability saga: The ultimate political weapon

It comes as little surprise that there has been a galore of acquittals on money laundering cases involving Pakistan’s ruling Sharif family. Pakistan’s current Prime Minister, his sons and other family members have been cleared of all money laundering charges against them. Some of these cases were registered during Imran Khan’s time and some were from even earlier. Now, they’re all wiped out. 

This politicized accountability has a huge downside, as trumped up corruption charges are handed down to politicians ‘disliked’ by Pakistan’s power centers at any given moment. 

When it is the right time for these powerful people to get off the hook, witnesses magically disappear or are let off, the investigation which seemed water tight earlier suddenly becomes weak enough to warrant an acquittal and so on.

Pakistan, a country in dire straits on the financial front, can hardly afford this gaping absence of financial propriety where its ruling elite is concerned.

- Nasim Zehra 

For over three decades, the accountability question lies at the very center of Pakistan’s politics. With Khan launching his party in 1996, under the slogan of holding people in power accountable, he managed to hold space for this question of accountability at the center-stage of Pakistan’s political narrative.

Alongside Khan’s political campaign of accountability, Pakistanis also witnessed, through the decade of the 90’s, the removal of elected governments by the country’s powerful military, who alleged mis-governance and corruption. Both major parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were ousted from government twice each, on charges of corruption. 

Accordingly, this decades’ long issue of accountability acquired the power of removal and of approval, used by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment for decades. When Khan, facilitated by the establishment and accepted by the public, said he sought better, more competent, and credible governance by politicians, he captured the imagination of the Pakistani voters and mobilized them. 

And so goes the story of accountability in Pakistan’s power game today. Interestingly, accountability was both weaponized and securitised by politicians and the establishment in varying degrees together. Though the principal architects of the accountability card has allegedly been the establishment over the years, it has consistently found ready partners among politicians to upstage rivals.

Now, Khan is being targeted through the accountability card after his removal as Prime Minister last year. Various corruption cases look to block him from participating in the next general elections. 

The same old corruption/ accountability card strikes once more as a weapon in Pakistan to engineer the political landscape. The damage this has caused to Pakistan’s governance, finance and above all rule of law, has been consistent and widespread. 

Consequently, genuine accountability has been reduced to an ugly and destructive farce. Pakistan’s institutions which were established to ensure financial propriety and financial integrity of those who wield constitutional authority, are almost paralyzed. A very small degree of genuine accountability may still exist covering the marginal and the ‘unimportant’ players within the system. 

The truth is that the major story of Pakistan’s political accountability has very little to do with ensuring financial integrity of powerful individuals, institutions and the system. In the game of power, Pakistanis have witnessed farce and in fact increased corruption in the name of accountability, fraudulent charges against the non-corrupt and charges against the actually corrupt conducted non-credibly and in a politically manipulative manner.

All the while, the corrupt, when they occupy powerful positions in politics, easily circumvent the system of accountability through already compromised institutions like the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA).

Pakistan, a country in dire straits on the financial front, can hardly afford this gaping absence of financial propriety where its ruling elite is concerned. The question now is whether this long curse of manipulation in the name of accountability will end. 

At this juncture, the answer remains unclear. 

- Nasim Zehra is an author, analyst and national security expert. Twitter: @NasimZehra