Islamabad, March 14; Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, in his very first speech in the National Assembly on March 29, 2008, promised to disband National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and create instead an independent Accountability Commission as envisaged in the Charter of Democracy signed by the PML-N and the PPP leaders. Two years down the line, this unfulfilled promise is one of the greatest failing of the current Government and to some extent the Parliament which has allowed the Holders of Public Offices (Accountability) Bill 2009 to stay with the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for 11 months since its introduction in the National Assembly on April 15, 2009. While the law is far from passed, the existing accountability mechanism in the form of the NAB is in limbo. It appears to suit the powerful that the NAB stays as a lame duck institution while the high profile accused persons, including the failed beneficiaries of the NRO, breeze through the Accountability Courts.

While the Prime Minister has mentioned more than once that the draft law has been given to the PML-N for their input creating the impression that the ball was in the court of the PML-N, it is not clear whether the PML-N has communicated its formal and written comments, and if at all, what exactly is the latest party position on the Holders of Public Offices (Accountability) Bill 2009 (HOPO). Until recently this Accountability legislation continued to be an ineffective and toothless legislation for the accountability of public officials. The PML-N leaders have publically and repeatedly criticized the HOPO Bill.

The most crucial aspect is that if an effective Accountability Law is not passed, the current state continues to help all those who need to face accountability. No one should remain under any illusion that if the present unsatisfactory state of accountability continues, the democratic order will stabilize or strengthen. The greatest threat to a democratic order in Pakistan has always been posed by erosion of public trust due to real or perceived corruption in high public offices.

PILDAT, at the completion of 2 years of the present Government and the new democratic order, once again reiterates that the Government, the Opposition, and the Parliament as an institution, must act fast on creating an effective and independent Accountability mechanism by passing a law that is not a sham as the original draft of HOPO was. The people will hold all those accountable who have failed the accountability system in the country.