Pakistan’s anti-graft body opens art gallery amid criticism

KARACHI: Pakistan’s primary anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), inaugurated an art gallery in southern Balochistan province’s main Quetta city on Friday to promote its “positive image,” but critics say such efforts without reforming the system will not yield results.
In recent months, the NAB has been accused of carrying out an anti-graft crusade backed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, which has led to dozens of high-profile arrests amid fierce political criticism. 
While inaugurating the gallery inside the building of the NAB office, Balochistan’s NAB chief, Farmanullah Khan, stressed the need to make a younger generation aware about the negative societal impacts of corruption, and to highlight the positive image of the organization under the special interest of NAB chief, retd. justice Javed Iqbal.
The gallery, he said, would “help the NAB’s efforts of making corrupt (people) accountable.”
But art critics say the art exhibit is a “gimmick” with no real outcome.
“This is not the first time we see an art-related activity with the anti-corruption theme. The anti-corruption department of Sindh (province) had been arranging exhibitions with no visible outcome,” Shahid Rassam, a renowned Pakistani artist and critic, told Arab News and stressed the need for real, organizational reform.
NAB spokesperson, Abdul Shakoor, said the goal of the art gallery was to spread awareness and “tell our children that corruption is a menace.”
Shakoor told Arab News that NAB had been holding art competitions based around the theme of anti-corruption in Balochistan’s art schools and was now displaying that artwork in the NAB gallery, which was not yet open to the general public.
“Awareness against corruption through creative feelings of art will be helpful in (our) ongoing jihad against corruption,” Shakoor said, making a reference to the Islamic concept of holy war.
The Imran Khan government has denied allegations about a NAB-led political witch-hunt, calling such claims opposition propaganda. In June, NAB arrested former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister over alleged false bank accounts and money laundering. NAB investigations against jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have continued, with his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, arrested by a NAB team last month alongside dozens of fresh probes and arrests.
“In the developed world, an accused (person) is not arrested till all evidence is collected. We see no such thing in Pakistan, where the character of anti-corruption watchdogs isn’t in line with the essence of the very arts they are using for their promotion,” artist Rassam said.