National Party offers itself for accountability

QUETTA: The National Party (NP) has put itself up for accountability by announcing to launch the internal accountability of the party leadership. A three-member body has been formed for scrutiny of assets of its leaders.

This was announced by NP President Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo who along with former Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and other party leaders was addressing a press conference, here on Sunday evening.

He said, “We always raised our voice against corruption. It is the first time that our party has been facing allegations of financial corruption.” He said the NP decided to form a committee to conduct a probe into the assets of legislators including those who belonged to the NP and other parties in Balochistan.

He said that when the National Accountability Bureau Balochistan recovered embezzled money from the house of suspended finance secretary, Mushtaq Ahmed Raisani, he (Bizenjo) asked the then finance advisor to chief minister Balochistan, Mir Khalid Langov, to resign from his office in the provincial cabinet.

"We have asked Mir Langov to present himself for accountability and he would appear before the NABBalochistan within couple of days," he said.

He said that the NP itself would take action against any of its member if he found in embezzlement of government funds. “The committee set up by the National Party would probe the assets of all members of the Balochistan Assembly”, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the ex-chief minister Balochistan, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, said that the persons who sold out government land in Reko Diq and Gwadar to mint money have now been leveling allegations of corruption against him.

Accountability should start from 2002 as several members of the cabinet of the previous government and opposition leaders were engaged in embezzlement of government funds, he maintained.

Ahmed Hassan adds from Islamabad: Panama Papers have given the country’s leading political parties a chance to cleanse themselves of bad elements. The NP is a smaller nationalist party. It has set an example by carrying out accountability of its leadership.

The situation following the global hue and cry over disclosures through the Panama Papers would also have been quite different had the internal accountability been institutionalised. For instance, the day the names of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children appeared in Panama Papers, the PMLN as a party could have started introspection instead of going on an offensive against the critics by using all the means at its command including government resources, government institutions and government functionaries to bash the opponents and to dig out the loopholes of the critics of their leaders.

So far the culture of accountability on institutional level has not been introduced in the country which is harming the whole national polity. Without going into detail whether anyone or all those named in Panama Papers have taken the money out of country legally or otherwise, institutions must start their investigation at their own and also ask them to step down from their positions until the internal inquiry is complete.

PMLN leadership instead of hurling abuses and wasting time in giving justifications for PM’s sons maintaining foreign accounts and offshore companies, they should also call for accountability of their PM family so as the truth comes out unbiased.—Originally published in The News