Judicial Self-Accountability
As is the custom of every military regime on coming to power, the Musharraf government initiated accountability across the board. In two respects the Musharraf’s benign “martial law” has remained totally different from those of his predecessors viz (1) martial law was not declared and (2) martial law courts were not used to dole out summary justice. To punish fiscal malfeasance, corruption and nepotism within the ambit of the law, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established immediately within days of the failed civilian coup of October 1999. Exercising due legal process under the public perception of draconian military rule, NAB did excellent work under its first Chairman, Lt Gen Muhammad Amjad. Regretfully, Amjad, himself upright and honest, was not averse to cronyism. Some of these cronies, took good advantage of a counterproductive escape hatch in the NAB Ordinance, allowing the accused the facility of “plea bargaining”. That set a precedent for others for condoning white collar crimes like fraud, pilferage, etc, the crooked being released if a “significant” portion of that ill-gotten money was returned. The moral repugnance of a thief being let off the hook by returning a part of the stolen loot notwithstanding, the criminal/s also got to “whiten” their ill-gotten proceeds. This mechanism was used by some of the investigators of NAB to pocket a portion of that stolen loot.
