Corruption and Pakistan

It seems like the Pakistani society and corruption go hand-in-hand; I am not labeling the entire society as corrupt but as it is said that the law of averages give a blanket over both the extremes. Corruption seems to be one of the fundamental problems of this country; reigning back to 1950’s. Till date not much has been done; though every time a new government comes over or takes over has talked about tackling with this issue but perhaps corruption is either too widespread in the system or whichever government comes in power falls in love with corruption.

Many experts believe that the current lawlessness, shrinkage of economy and increasing poverty is credited to the corruption in the country. Corruption is like a termite that eats the entire structure of the government which eventually leads to a failure. In Pakistan over a period of year especially during the 1990’s many governments became the victim of high corruption in the system.

Different governments have made little effort for handling the corruption like Pakistan Penal Code of 1960 (PPC), the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947 (PCA) and the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) of 1999; it is important to note here that NAO initially was drafted to outline the objectives, duties and power of NAB – National Accountability Bureau but after forming of the new government in 2002 NAO was regulated and the Judiciary and personnel of the armed forces were excluded from NAB.

Recently issued report of the Transparency International placed Pakistan on the 142nd number, ranked as the 42nd most corrupt nation, equivalent to Bangladesh, Belarus and Philippines; even Nigeria is at 130th number. Many believe that Transparency International is a an anti-government body, that it is funded by lobbies that want to destabilize the government or give a bad image to the country; I am not a member nor a spokesman of transparency international but I have read the methodology of their rating and it is done by taking at least 6 or maximum 13 independent surveys; which include Country Performance Assessment Ratings by the Asian Development Bank; Global Competitiveness Report by World Economic Forum or Country Policy and International Assessment by World Bank and then there are a number of other independent organization’s reports that are carried over a period of time in a particular year.

Seven surveys were used for compilation of Pakistan’s rating; and the government response to this was made by our interior minister Rehman Malik,

As far as the data collection system of the Transparency International is concerned there are many flaws in the system so the Transparency International’s report placing Pakistan on 42nd number on the list of corrupt nations is not acceptable.

May be 42nd is not acceptable to the minister because he was looking at a number somewhere in 20’s.

When the leaders live on NROs and purchase lands in Islamabad far below the market price; tenders are awarded before being made open in the public (to which I was a victim myself) than why to blame Transparency International or any organization for that matter.

Corruption is having a devastated effect on the country and on the overall economic growth. The entire system of the country has been manhandled with nepotism, misuse of power and widespread of financial and political corruption. A recent case of corruption that was reported was the issuance of licenses of armed weapons by ministry of interior to a security company whereas there was a ban on any such issuance of licenses.

When the bodies like NAB are used for personal enmity and culprits are released on bail before arrest then what to do? And then we complain that Friends of Pakistan only pledge money and does not materialize or fulfill their promises; obviously with such an image which country would like to give their tax payers money to us and why should they? According to media reports in the current year more than PKR 5 billion was used in corruption; now had this sum of money been used in some developing project or on electricity or on sugar the country might not had been in such a mess; corruption money creates double loss for an economy and the nation; one, this money does not come under tax net which severely hurts the exchequer; two, this money is not used in the country or for its development.

With our leaders having their assets in the foreign countries; this level of corruption is most likely to increase then decrease and it seems that our leaders have become shameless because such reports of Transparency International does not affect them anymore. They are least bothered by the fact the corruption has been explicitly condemned in our religion but it seems that it does not matter to them anymore, The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said:

Allah cursed the briber (rashi) and bribe-taker (murtashi). Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-’As [The Office of the Judge (Kitab Al-Aqdiyah) [24:3573], Sunnan Abudawud

If our leaders, bureaucrats and other government officials keep running on this track then one day we will be ranked as the most corrupt country in world! But then at least we will be ranked number one somewhere!

I do not know if we will be proud of it or ashamed of it!

Following is the list of a few most corrupt departments of Pakistan, according to Transparency International;

1. National Highway Authority (NHA)
2. Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA)
3. Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)
4. Ministry of Water and Power
5. WAPDA
6. Pepco
7. National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK)
8. Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB)
9. Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB)
10. Pakistan Steel
11. Trading Corporation of Pakistan

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