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Game Update: Pakistan won the match by 54 runs. Shoaib Malik named Man of the Match.

The thrill of a Pakistan-India cricket encounter is always special. This time around at the ICC Champions Trophy Tournament in South Africa it is no different.he story of the moment is that Pakistan has set India 303 to win. A good score but certainly not insurmountable. At the time of writing this, India was 91/2 in 14 overs, in the 50 overs game.

arlier report on Pakistan’s innings, from The News:

Summary:

Recent overs 2 1 . . 1 2,W | 1^wd . 1 . . . 1 | 1 . 1 W 1 W | . . 4 . W

Last Bat Harbhajan Singh b Saeed Ajmal 13 (34m 22b 1×4 0×6) SR: 59.09 (source:crickinfo)

An enterprising century by Shoaib Malik and brilliant 87 by Mohammad Yousuf helped Pakistan set India a difficult target of 303 runs in their Group A match in the ICC Champions Trophy here on Saturday. Malik made 128 from 126 balls and struck 16 fours while Yousuf hit seven fours in his 88-ball innings. Both added 206 runs, a record fourth wicket partnership against India. For India, seamers Ashish Nehra bagged four wickets for 55 runs while Ishant Sharma claimed two for 39. Pakistan captain Younus Khan elected to bat after winning the toss against India in the Champions Trophy here on Saturday.

Pakistan won their opening match of the four-team group against the West Indies, while India are playing their first game. Defending champions Australia are the other team in the group, with the top two advancing to the semi-finals. Pakistan made one change from the side that beat the West Indies, with Younus coming in place of Misbah-ul-Haq.

Pakistan: Younus Khan (captain), Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Umar Gul,
Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh.

source: the news.

KARACHI: An accountability court disposed of on Friday two corruption references against the wife of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and five other people after the National Accountability Bureau which had filed them in 2000 informed the court that the matter had been settled and charges withdrawn.

Fouzia Yousuf Gilani, Syeda Samina Abrar, Anwar Nasreen, Ziaur Rehman, Khalid Hussain and Nasreen Munawar Chaudhry were accused of obtaining two loans from the Agricultural Development Bank for their companies in the late 1980s and not returning the money.

NAB’s prosecutor general filed an application in the court stating that the matter had been settled and the accused had entered into an agreement with the bank.

He said the prosecution had decided to withdraw the charges.

According to the prosecution, the accused who were directors of the Pakistan Green Fertiliser had obtained a loan of Rs71.163 million from the ADBP in November 1987 and not returned the amount after which the National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference against them.

The second reference pertained to a loan of Rs100 million taken from the bank in July 1989 for the Multan Edible Oil Extraction company. The court had dismissed applications for acquittal in July.

The managing director of the firms, Munawar Hussain Sindhu, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on March 10, 2001, while Ms Gilani and others were awarded three-year terms in absentia for failing to appear before the court.

SOURCE: DAWN

ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will be appointed by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, and not the president, under amended laws.

This was announced by a special parliamentary committee on the ‘Holder of Public Offices Bill of 2009’ after a meeting here on Tuesday.

Besides discussing the eligibility criteria, the committee decided that the tenure of the NAB chairman should be three years. The meeting was presided over by Begum Nasim Chaudhry.

The committee suggested anyone found involved in corruption should be awarded a sentence which might extend to a seven-year prison term.

It also called for empowering the NAB chairman or the court to freeze the property of any accused on reasonable grounds.

The meeting was attended by Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Mohammad Ijaz Virk, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Zahid Hamid, Anusha Rehman Khan, Riaz Fatyana, Tariq Shabbir, Saira Afzal Tarar and S.A. Iqbal Qadri.

Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Law and Justice, Malik Hakim Khan, also attended the meeting.

The government is considering renaming NAB as National Accountability Commission or National Commission of Accountability because its current name symbolises ‘an era of political victimisation’.

A significant aspect of the new legislation is that it would bar any military official from becoming its chairman.

Under the new legislation, the head of the accountability commission would be a retired judge or a senior lawyer or a civilian to be appointed by the president.

Recent reports have suggested that the government is considering winding up the NAB and establish another authority to deal with white-collar crime.

The sources said the post of deputy chairman, currently held by a military official, would be abolished in the new set up.

At present NAB, which was once one of the most powerful state institutions, stands crippled because of lack of funds.

Analysts argued that the promulgation of National Reconciliation Ordinance sounded the death-knell for NAB because it provided ‘immunity to politicians involved in corruption’. The ordinance also barred the bureau from instituting further cases against them

Source  : DAWN

Corruption in the public and private sectors has caused great damage by undermining the socio-political and economic fabric of society. History bears testimony to the fact that societies riddled with corruption implode and eventually slip into oblivion.

Despite the best efforts of successive governments in our country to control corruption it has permeated every aspect of public life.

The National Accountability Bureau, established by the last government as an apex white-collar crime investigation agency of the country, is an example of such efforts. Although many people would disagree, the establishment of NAB was one of the good acts of the Musharraf regime. Given the circumstances under which the organisation was established when corruption and cronyism reigned supreme, this action of Gen Musharraf gained widespread appreciation.

The present government has decided to disband NAB and repeal the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999. The federal minister for parliamentary affairs Babar Awan introduced the Holders of Public Offices Accountability Bill in April 2009 to replace the 1999 ordinance. The setting up of an enforcement agency by the name of the Accountability Commission is being considered. NAB has been discounted as a tool used by Gen Musharraf to have gained support of politicians. The NAO, 1999 has been labelled a ‘draconian law’.

NAB’s objective was to cleanse society of corruption and conduct accountability of the looters of the national exchequer and the bigwigs involved along with those involved in plunder, embezzlement, abuse of power and defrauding people. In less than nine years, NAB did valuable work to restore looted money and provide relief to the victims of the excesses of government officials and private enterprises. Major public scams successfully investigated by NAB include those by Alliance Motors, Mehran City (a fake housing scheme) and Double Shah where thousands of people were affected.

The organisation has completed hundreds of investigations resulting in successful prosecution and the recovery of Rs225bn, including Rs116bn from loan defaulters. The money spent on establishing this organisation was a mere Rs4.5bn which means that it returned over Rs50 to the state for every rupee given to it by the government. This is an unprecedented performance by an investigation agency.

Irrespective of the social status or political posturing of the accused, NAB filed hundreds of references against some 1,400 government servants, 400 businessmen, 117 politicians, 21 ex-army officers (on civilian appointments) and 1,058 others including bankers and those involved in public scams, financial institutions, etc.

The Holders of Public Offices Accountability Bill only applies to the holders of political offices i.e. ex-presidents, prime ministers, governors, chief ministers and parliamentarians and has excluded all serving/retired bureaucrats, retired army officers and members of the judiciary who could be tried under Section 9 of NAO, 1999 by NAB. It has no provision for recovery of outstanding amounts from those persons who have committed default in repaying banks, financial institutions and public and private agencies.

The new bill is in violation of the ratification of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) which obligates the ratifying country to have one apex national anti-corruption agency to conduct the accountability of both public and private sectors. While signing this protocol, Pakistan pledged total commitment to undertaking major anti-corruption initiatives. Abolition of NAB or reduction in its role and capacity will be viewed with concern at the international level as it is the nominated focal agency to coordinate with and ensure compliance of all such international protocols.

The new bill does not cover investigating cases in which government officials receive kickbacks for awarding contracts, an exercise prevalent in government institutions. This was, however, covered in Section 33(b) of NAO, 1999. The bill does not even cover inquiry/investigation or prosecution of ‘associates’, ‘benamidar’ and ‘wilful default’. Hence the new bill is limited in scope.

The abolition of NAB would mean transferring its functions to other agencies such as the FIA and provincial anti-corruption agencies. The FIA already has a wide range of responsibilities and in any case its performance over the years especially with regard to its functions which had been transferred to NAB in 2004 show that the FIA has largely been lacking in performance. The prosecution ratio of NAB is 67 per cent whereas the FIA and provincial anti-corruption agencies are lagging behind with 28 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Furthermore, provincial agencies have a limited mandate and are subject to direct political control.

It is worth mentioning that NAB’s actions were at a point influenced by Gen Musharraf when he was trying to consolidate power by manoeuvring the actions of the organisation at whim. Now that the army is back in the barracks and Musharraf is no longer in power civilian officers have taken over command of the organisation. Exploitation of NAB by a dictator for political gain has become a thing of the past. Its performance during the last three years must be seen in the context of political victimisation by a dictator. However, the organisation did not have political biases in the recent past.

The general trend in foreign countries is to place accountability agencies under the direct supervision of the prime minister/chief executive (Singapore and Malaysia), the president (in the case of the Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority of the UAE), parliament (India), the attorney general (UK and New Zealand) or the justice ministry (Hong Kong, Argentina and Denmark). This shows that while overseeing agencies by the government are necessary, a restrictive or intrusive mandate should be discouraged.

The writer is a former investigation officer of NAB, Sindh.

Source : DAWN