The Chinese say that “a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”. Institutionalizing accountability in Pakistan through the establishment of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be Pervez Musharraf's lasting legacy. A few glaring missteps aside, Lt Gen Muhammad Amjad, the man who was the first head of NAB had his heart in the right place, was exceedingly lucky in the crucial first year to have Maj Gen (Retd) Inayatullah Khan Niazi as his No 2, incidentally both from Lawrence College, Ghoragali. Even though NAB initially wrongly prioritized going after bank defaulters as opposed to outright corruption per se i.e. targeting businessmen rather than politicians and bureaucrats, NAB has done a remarkable job in prosecuting the white-collar corrupt in a country where the corrupt never got prosecuted.

Despite its successes NAB has suffered in public perception because, viz (1) an army general heads NAB rather than someone from the superior judiciary (2) inability to go after the corrupt in the superior judiciary and the Armed Forces and (3) wrong implementation of “plea bargaining”. Issues which became problematical later were, viz (4) selective accountability (5) NAB's influencing of “positive” political leaning and (6) inability to provide concrete evidence against Asif Zardari for the many cases he is incarcerated for over 8 years, rank injustice! These six factors, taken separately and/or together, have tarnished and eroded NAB's reputation for dispensing even-handed justice. There is also a seventh factor, viz some evidence that NAB has been used for vendettas from time to time, both personal and official.....more

Read viewer comments

Rhetoric is no substitute for facts, to get carried away by it is to invite disaster, particularly in the area of defence and national security. Unfortunately we have become so good at presentations and the images/perceptions it creates that we are quite divorced from ground reality. Our spectacular achievements in non-conventional weapons notwithstanding, commensurate achievement in indigenisation in conventional weapons and equipment is lacking. Of particular concern is why calibre 7.62 mm has not already been brought down to 5.56 mm or even lower (4.76 mm) for the basic weapon of the soldier. The firepower and logistics thereof difference being almost double, what stopped us from going for the changeover more than a decade ago? Was there motivated interest for POF to keep producing the very much obsolete Heckler and Koch Rifle G3? If our basic infantryman is not equipped to deal on equal terms with the enemy, who are we fooling?

We need standardization across the board in weapons and equipment. Even an infantry section needs at least three types of ammunition, whereas there should be same calibre for rifle, sub-machine gun and light machine gun. There is growing adverse teeth-to-tail ratio of the ground forces with no sign of re-organization into smaller, more mobile, IT-intensive units to reflect 21st century realities. Because of our political compulsions imposed on our military mind, the focus on purely military matters is missing. Involvement in Civil governance has meant we are less professional than we were a decade ago. For the present and future we are frozen in World War 2 concepts. A beginning of sorts has been made in this mind-block by getting rid of the batman of imperial times, how the system evolves in practice will be the acid test of intention. The fighting units are presently denuded of personnel because of demands of various HQs up the line for non-combat duties during peace, adversely affecting their training cycle and thus cutting into their effectiveness. There are macro-issues and micro-ones to be addressed, this article will address only macro-issues.....more