An Analytical Study of the NAB Ordinance 1999 in the Context of Shariah in the Light of the Quran and Sunnah

Abstract

This paper carries out an analytical research on the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 (NAO 1999) with reference to the principles of Islam Shari'ah, taking into consideration its congruence, compatibility and lack of congruence with the Quranic and Sunnah provisions on corruption, accountability, justice and punishment. The paper will start by examining the Islamic bases of anti-corruption such as the ban on bribery (rishwah), misappropriation (ghulul), violation of trust (khiyanat al-amanah) and the creation of justice (adl wa qist) as the state obligations. It has past historical examples of the Prophetic era and the Reformative Caliphs, whose systems of accountability were focused on transparency, non-partisanship, and reformative justice. The paper then examines NAO 1999, its background, scope, definition (Section 9), authority of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), arrest and detention (Section 26), plea bargaining (Section 25), and reverse burden of proof (Section 14). Comparative analysis shows that there are some concurrences with Shari'ah in common goals of eliminating corruption and securing the confidence of the people, but also vast divergences emerge in the aspect of the procedure: long term detention with insufficient safety measures, plea bargaining which dilutes the severity of punishment, and overwhelming evidences which contradict the Islamic law of burden of proof rests with the claimant (al-bayyinah 'ala al-mudda'i). Under the constitution of Pakistan, the paper compares NAO with provisions of Islam (Articles 2, 2A, and 227) and the Federal Shariat Court in determining repugnancy to Islamic injunctions. The results showed that although NAO promotes the anti-corruption agenda, some of its provisions may infringe on the Shariah and focus on equity, human dignity, and proportional punishments. The article then ends by giving recommendations on reforms which include amendments to make it more transparent, non-partisan, balance the punishment with the rehabilitation and make the structure closer to the Islamic concept of justice and accountability. These changes would make NAB more effective and maintain the Islamic constitutional identity of Pakistan.

Keywords: National Accountability Ordinance 1999, NAB, Islamic Shari'ah, corruption, accountability, plea bargain, reverse burden of proof, justice (adl), breach of trust, Federal Shariat Court, Pakistan Constitution, anti-corruption reforms, Islamic jurisprudence, human rights, transparency.