Corruption in Pakistan

By Arif A. Syed, Carlsbad, NM

The idea that everybody is subject to Law and all are equal before it is the bedrock of civilization. Rome ruled its Mediterranean empire through Roman Law successfully. This resulted in unbounded prosperity and a life of peace and tranquility for the ordinary citizen. But the decay set in when the republic became an empire. The fall of Rome led to the lawless dark ages ruled by an oligarchy, a form of government in which the supreme power was restricted to a few individuals and a few families.

In Western civilization, liberty is traced to the historic day in 1215 AD when King John of England was forced to sign the Magna Carta, which specified in unequivocal terms that even the king was not above law.

In Islam the rule of law worked perfectly during the reign of the first four caliphs but when monarchy replaced khilafat, the qazis modified the law to please the monarchs and their surrogates.

The most significant issue facing Pakistan today is the supremacy of the rule of law. Do we want to exist in the new millennium as a nation governed by laws and not self-serving dictators? Or will one law apply to the resourceful and influential member of society and another to the common man for the same offence? Will guilt or innocence be determined in deliberative courts or by fanatics in the streets?

Good government derives from honest leadership and a high-quality state-run machinery, often referred to as bureaucracy. Our bureaucracy lacks the essential ingredients for running the day-to-day administration of the country. Not all members of the bureaucracy are corrupt but summary dismissals of honest officers has affected the morale of the civil service. Their morale can be restored if they are sure that they cannot be removed without the due process of law.

Today Pakistan is more corrupt, more lawless, and more unstable than it was at the time of independence. It is bereft of institutions needed to build a modern, law?abiding, progressive society. Personal trust, so vital to a market economy, has been destroyed by dishonest rulers, both elected and non-elected. About seventy billion dollars of people’s hard earned money has been siphoned off to offshore bank accounts by members of seventy rich families of Pakistan, which include Benazir, Nawaz Sharif, and others. Most top generals and bureaucrats maintain their property and accounts in foreign banks. Out of that looted money, 31 billion US$ is the foreign loan. But the tragedy is that the common man has paid back 32 billion dollars as interest till today. And nobody knows how many times more the sum of 32 billion dollars shall be paid as interest .Should we borrow more hard currency every year so that a few elite families could continue to live a life of luxury and opulence?

Another question comes to mind: What is the state of corruption in Pakistan? One of the agencies that attempts to measure the level of corruption in different countries of the world is Transparency International, a privately funded organization manned by a number of former World Bank officials who have seen aid money being adventurously squandered by irresponsible governments.

Today, investors are steering clear of stocks in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Transparency International ranked all three countries as amongst the world’s most corrupt states in 1999. Funds invested in China and India are 21 % and 48% over five years, even though they are consistently rated as two of the most corrupt nations as far as business transactions go. Undeniably corruption costs money.

In the year 2000 AD, Pakistan is out of the list of Transparency International, the reason being that corruption is so rampant that foreign investment in Pakistan is considered out of question. Transparency International compiles a list of countries with a declining scale of corruption for the benefit of investors worldwide. All this shows how corruption influences prospective investors’ confidence in a country and reflects on the stability of its earnings.

Now it seems that only General Musharraf and his hand-picked bureaucrats can save Pakistan from sliding into an economic precipice. For doing this good work, the General and his team of experts must remain in power at least for five years. At the same time, a vigilance cell should be created to oversee their work and activities.