Why Pakistan’s Prime Minister Is Still Free

Pakistan’s Supreme Court last month ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf within 24 hours on allegations of his involvement in corruption involving power-generation equipment.

The arrest order was widely seen as the latest round of a five-year-long battle for power between the court, which plays an activist role in local politics, and the Pakistan People’s Party-led government.

But three weeks later Mr. Ashraf remains in office as Pakistan heads toward general elections due by May.

So what gives?

A major reason the arrest has not been carried out is the National Accountability Bureau, a state body charged with investigating corruption and carrying out arrests, has refused to play ball with the Supreme Court.

On Jan. 17, two days after the court issued the arrest order for Mr. Ashraf and 15 others, Fasih Bokhari, NAB’s chairman, told the court he could not make the arrests as the bureau had not yet built a solid case.

Mr. Bokhari told Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that NAB needed more time to investigate allegations Mr. Ashraf accepted bribes for approving power generation projects in 2010 during his tenure as power minister. The court had ordered NAB to investigate the matter in 2010. Attempts to reach Mr. Ashraf were unsuccessful but he has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Relations between NAB and the court have deteriorated since then.

A day later, on Jan. 18, a NAB investigator involved in investigating Mr. Ashraf and the others was found dead in his apartment in Islamabad, the capital. Police are investigating the cause of the death. Mr. Bokhari said he was suspending NAB’s probe until police carried out its investigation of the death.

Then, at the end of January, Mr. Bokhari wrote Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to complain about continued pressure from the Supreme Court to push ahead with the graft probe – pressure which he said constituted an infringement of NAB’s independence. Mr. Zardari appointed Mr. Bokhari, a retired navy admiral, to his post in 2011.

In turn, Mr. Chaudhury issued a contempt of court order against Mr. Bokhari. The NAB chairman is due in court Tuesday to answer this charge.

NAB’s refusal to arrest Mr. Ashraf shows the three-way power struggle that has gripped Pakistan in recent years. On one side is the court, which played a front-line role in the ouster in 2008 of former military-backed President Pervez Musharraf, and has played an increasingly activist part in politics since then.

The court scored a hit last summer when it forced out Mr. Ashraf’s predecessor as prime minister over his refusal to launch a  graft probe into Mr. Zardari.

But the court has been unable to unseat Mr. Zardari, who is close to becoming the first democratically-elected leader in Pakistan’s 66-year history as an independent nation to complete a full five-year term.

Pakistan’s military, the third player in Pakistan’s political landscape, has not stepped in to take over power, despite repeated rumors of a coup. It remains powerful, setting domestic security and foreign policy.

Mr. Chaudhury, in the past, has defended the court’s actions, saying it is trying to stamp out graft in politics. A Supreme Court spokesman declined to comment on the current struggle with NAB or the order to arrest the prime minister.

Pakistan’s government, which has filed a petition to the court to review its January arrest order, has regularly claimed the court is overstepping the bounds of its authority.

A member of the prime minister’s legal counsel, Faisal Chaudhry, said there is insufficient evidence against Mr. Ashraf. He claimed the Supreme Court is playing the role of a political party.

A spokesman for NAB, Zafar Iqbal, said the bureau should to left alone to do its work. “The chairman acts in accordance with the law of the land not under the influence of who is who nor who is whose friend,” Mr. Iqbal said.

He acknowledged the investigations into the alleged corruption has been slow because NAB lacks adequate personnel to push ahead. “It is likely that the Supreme Court is unaware of how understaffed NAB is,” he added.

The Supreme Court has set Feb. 18 as the next hearing into its arrest order, when it will summon NAB officials and police involved in the probe of the death of the bureau’s investigator.

( India realtime )