AN English daily on Tuesday reported that a Commissioner of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has declined his accountability to the Chairman and demanded the scraping of a section of the law; which requires such compliance. The report also said the High Court has issued a notice on Sunday on the chairman, two commissioners and the director general of the organization on a writ filed by a lawyer in which the authority of the chairman and other commissioners has been challenged demanding clarifications.
The matter as it develops is, in our opinion, indicative of sharp divisiveness within the Commission, if not altogether a power struggle in which a commissioner has taken to challenge the chairman’s authority. The commissioner in question has reportedly raised the issue of independence on several occasions in the past saying the commissioners’ accountability to the chairman is a barrier to their independent activities and it means, in his view, the existing law contradicts the commissioners’ independence. The concerned section of the law therefore needs to be scraped.
The matter is now pending before the High Court Division for decision and it is not advisable to give any interpretation of the legal position.
Former ACC chairman Ghulam Rahman has been quoted in the report as saying that he did not think the concerned section of the law was a problem as it did not allow outside interference under the overall control of the chairman on others. He said the Commission can’t function if the commissioners are not accountable to the chairman. The law made him the chief executive, he said.
We know that the ACC, by definition of its activities, is at the center of serious controversy for its unfettered power to prosecute persons. There are also allegations of abuse of power for harassing small and helpless people. As against powerful ones, the ACC has proved weak and toothless. But the whole idea of having an independent ACC was to fight corruption in high public places. But the ACC has become a harassment machinery scenting corruption in unimportant places. The ordinary laws are enough for ordinary corruptions. But even simple cases under Section 420 of the Penal Code are taken up by the ACC. The ACC needs to be put in check.
