Supreme Court expresses concern over delays in accountability cases

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has expressed concern over capacity issues plaguing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) when it was told that 1,226 references were pending before different accountability courts, and that five such courts were still without any presiding judge.

“Neither the investigating officers working with the NAB are well trained to probe corruption allegations, nor are the prosecutors interested in pursuing cases before accountability courts,” observed Chief Justice of Pakistan

Gulzar Ahmed.

Clearing the pending cases is the lowest priority with the NAB, he regretted.

Ahmed was heading a threejudge Supreme Court bench that had taken up suo motu notice about delays in decisionmaking process in cases before the accountability courts.

At the last hearing on January 8, Justice Mushir Alam had requested that the chief justice constitute a special Supreme Court bench and initiate suo motu proceedings over the delay in prosecuting the accused before the trial courts.

The top court had also asked the NAB to furnish a report highlighting reasons for the delay in trials, how many accountability courts were short of presiding judges and the reasons why the vacancies have not yet been filled.

The NAB’s Prosecutor-General Asghar Haider told the court that the bureau’s chairman, retired Justice Javed Iqbal, was taking personal interest in the matter and had issued letters to regional offices highlighting that he himself was monitoring the pace of proceedings.

The NAB chairman had also sought fortnightly reports from the offices concerned about the progress on different references pending in a number of accountability courts.

This is not a big deal and the pendency of 1,226 references in different courts can be cleared within six months provided these are pursued diligently, the chief justice observed.

If a large number of witnesses are added to a case, the matter is never settled, he observed.

The NAB should concentrate on the quality of witnesses, rather than quantity, in the references, the chief justice added.

The prosecutor-general also told the court that the NAB is in the process of issuing advertisements to seek assistance from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police in an attempt to revamp the entire investigation process and to bring radical changes.