::1 year of AL-led government::

The crusade against corruption that gained momentum during the caretaker government regime and later adopted by the ruling AL as its major electoral pledge came to a complete standstill as the government completes its first year with hundreds of corruption cases pending with the courts.

The government's most challenging task froze in uncertainty as the liberty and neutrality of the Anti-Corruption Commission has been dwindled while some ruling Awami League lawmakers pushed the cases filed by the ACC in absence of government move to settle those.

Even government appointed ACC Chairman Ghulam Rahman after only three and a half months into his appointment termed the anti-graft body a "toothless tiger" while criticising the government's move.

"The commission will turn useless if its neutrality and independence is affected. I hope that the government will not do that," Ghulam Rahman told The Daily Star.

"None accused in corruption cases is serving conviction. An anti-corruption drive yields result only when it ensures punishment. But our cases are entangled in legal dilemma. We are confident about the case contents and hope that the government would take instant initiative to make the drive a success," he persisted.

The first major blow on the drive came when former ACC chief Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury stepped down on April 2, 85 days after the Awami League-led grand alliance assumed power, though Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier assure Mashhud-led commission of all-out assistance to carry out the drive.

Sources said Mashhud had to step down as he was not comfortable discharging his duties as some of the senior leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties were repeatedly criticising him as well as the two-year long anti-graft drive.

After twenty-eight days since Mashhud resigned, the government appointed Ghulam Rahman on May 1 who took the ACC chief's office on June 24. For around two months after Ghulam's appointment all ACC activities remained literally stopped.

The ACC, however, filed about 70 cases, mainly against government officials, while over 100 charge sheets were submitted since the new ACC boss took over.

Of the cases and charge sheets, there is hardly anything significant except the charge sheet submitted against former prime minister Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman Koko. The ACC is also investigating the wealth of Amir Hossain Amu and issued a notice against AL lawmaker Atikur Rahman Atik. These are the major ACC steps in the last year worth mentioning.

On the other hand, the government has so far forwarded 99 cases filed by the ACC with recommendation to withdraw them on the ground that they were "politically motivated". Of them 90 cases were filed against the ruling Awami League lawmakers.

Meanwhile, lack of government initiative to hold hearing on the appeals of two AL lawmakers -- Habibur Rahman Molla and MK Alamgir -- who filed appeal with the appellate division mainly challenging procedural mistake, proceeding of about 500 cases filed against high profile politicians and former ministers during the caretaker government regime, remained pending in court.

Habibur Rahman's appeal filed with the appellate division remained pending since January 25. He alleged that the ACC did not maintain the timeframe as per its law during enquiry and investigation before filing the case against him.

Earlier, the high court on November 11 last year discharged the petition Habibur Rahman had filed on the same ground stating that there was no ground for consideration. Habibur was accused of amassing wealth beyond known sources of income.

Soon after the government assumed power Habibur file the appeal with the Supreme Court and no hearing was held on it till date, as the government is not willing to bring the matter into hearing.

Following his appeal, about 400 identical cases including those against Moudud Ahmed, Tarique Zia, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Obaidul Qader, Sadek Hossain Khoka and Nasiruddin Pintu are pending with the HC awaiting the apex court's decision and direction regarding the issue.

About 100 more cases are pending as the government is unwilling to hold hearing on ACC's appeal filed following an HC order of cancelling MK Alamgir's conviction.

Alamgir challenged his conviction on the ground that the notice for submitting his wealth statement was issued by ACC secretary when the commission was not even formed.

It took six months for the ACC to get the HC order of cancelling Alamgir's conviction and it filed appeal against the order on that very day. The SC has recently fixed January 7 for holding hearing on the ACC appeal.

Against such backdrop, the ACC that was determined to combat corruption, mainly of the bigwigs, back in 2007 has now turned its face to petty corruption such as taking bribe in different government institutions.

Besides, the ACC is reviving proceedings of the cases pending since the Bureau of Anti-Corruption period.

The anti-corruption drive started to slow down just before the parliamentary elections last year to ensure participation of all parties in the December 29 polls.

Though immediately after the elections the ACC sought reformation in its law for making the body more effective, its proposal for amendment continued to be on the back burner and the drive started losing its momentum.

Meanwhile, using the ACC's proposal for amendment as an opportunity the government plans to curtail its authority and the cabinet committee formed in March to review the ACC act. The government has already drafted some proposals and forwarded them for ACC opinion.

One of the proposals suggests that the graft accused should be obligated to take permission from the government to bring proceedings in certain circumstances and against someone believed to have "committed the offence in good faith".

Another proposal says to leave it to NBR's direction whether to furnish the ACC with the documents it should ask for. ACC has drafted its preliminary opinion on the proposal opposing many of the recommendations forwarded by the cabinet committee.

The graft watchdog suffered another blow in its investigation when the ACC in a legal interpretation notified that its officials could not ask for one's bank statement without a court order.

The ACC wanted to increase its workforce dealing corruption cases filed against public servants but the government rebuffed the suggestion. The other ACC proposals include adding a provision in the ACC Act that allows the ACC to be the party concerned, instead of the government, in all the cases it files and all the judgments it challenges in higher courts.

Since the commission suffers from shortage of manpower, it proposed cancelling section 408, which empowers the ACC to investigate corruption allegations filed against private companies, in one of its schedules. The cabinet refused to scrap the section.