ACC under pressure to drop some cases

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is under pressure to withdraw the corruption cases it filed against the leaders and activists of the ruling party, according to sources.
The sources said the high ups of the ACC were told verbally to withdraw corruption cases filed during the last 4-party alliance government and the caretaker regime against the ruling party leaders and workers.
The commission was also told that a list of cases would be sent to the ACC for withdrawal if the cases are withdrawn.
An ACC official said public apprehensions that the ACC would not be able to work independently under political regime are likely to be true. As of Monday, a total of 688 corruption cases, 213 in Dhaka and 475 outside Dhaka, were pending before the courts. Of the cases, legal processes of 179 were stopped by the higher court. The legal processes on the rest of the cases have been going on in a timid way, the sources said.
The anti-corruption watchdog used to be headlined in the media during the last caretaker regime but after the installation of the present political government the commission has lost its momentum.
At one stage former ACC chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury had to quit the commission and Golam Rahman took over the responsibilities of the ACC.
Rahman is known as a man of action but he is yet to go into action at ACC though he has expressed his firm commitment to pursue the drive against corruption. On Sunday, he met all the district-level officials of the ACC and tried to know from them whether they were facing pressure from any quarter. On Monday he had a meeting with the ACC lawyers and wanted to know from them about the merit of the cases pending before different courts.
The new chairman also wanted to know the process of appointing lawyers during the last caretaker regime. He asked the officials to make him know on what basis the remuneration of lawyers was fixed.
The ACC administration admitted that some wrongdoings happened during the caretaker regime but said a crackdown on the corruption was necessary.

Courtesy of The News Today