By Sarah Khan
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the
great ones to public office.– (Aesop)
One late night, Hazrat
Umar Bin Abdul Aziz, the celebrated Umayyad Caliph whose empire stretched from
the shores of the Atlantic to the highlands of Pamir, was sitting in his
private chamber examining a pile of State documents. The dim light of the room
was adding to the serenity and somberness of the place and the Caliph could
scarcely feel the arrival of his wife, Fatima, till she addressed him, “Sire!
Will you spare few moments for me? I want to discuss a private matter with
you.” “Of course”, replied the pious Caliph, raising his head from the papers,
“But, please put off this State lamp and light your own, as I do not want to
burn the State oil for private talk.” Our history is replete with such
examples of good governance which has become a rare entity now, especially in
Pakistan.
In recent years, and
especially in the decade of the 1990s, a phenomenon broadly referred to as
corruption has attracted a great deal of attention. In countries
developed and developing, large or small, market-oriented or otherwise, because
of accusations of corruption, governments have fallen, prominent politicians (including
presidents of countries and prime ministers) have lost their official
positions, and, in some cases, whole political classes have been
replaced. “Corruption and poor governance limit economic growth and
retard the development of a healthy private sector”. Corruption, defined
as misuse of entrusted power for private benefit is unfortunately endemic in
Pakistan. No structure, no tier and no office of public sector is immune from
it. Its spread is enormous. It has reached every organ of state — beyond
executive it has put its claws on judiciary and legislature even. It would be
no exaggeration to say that the whole body of the state of Pakistan is
suffering from this malaise and wailing under its dead weight. So enormous is
its incidence that in 2014 Pakistan was ranked 127 in the comity of nations on
the scale of corruption free governance.
Although, corruption
has permeated in ever region of our country, yet the situation is extremely
alarming in Sindh. Quick analysis can lead to connections between
previous federal Government and present provincial Government of Sindh. Off
late, mega corruption scandals of Sindh Government have been reported but as
usual not a single meaningful investigation has been initiated so far.
Our domestic media which remains vigilant in searching for such scandals also
seems least interested on such mega stories for reasons best known to
them. Various departments of Sindh Government which have been reportedly
involved in colossal corruption cases include General Administration
Department, Education Department, Revenue Department, Energy Department and
Works Department. The overall figures of combined corruption reach almost
13 Billion rupees. Last month, it was reported that formal FIRs have been
registered against few secretary level officials but progress is still awaited.
Evil of corruption can
not be tackled single handedly, it would rather need a collaborated and multi
pronged strategy. The national leadership must show honest and visible
commitment against corruption. Existing policies must be reviewed to
reduce the demand for corruption by scaling down regulations and other policies
such as tax incentives and by making those that are retained as transparent and
as non-discretionary as possible. Discretion must be kept to the minimum.
Similarly, by reducing the supply of corruption by increasing public sector
wages, by increasing incentives toward honest behavior and by instituting
effective controls and penalties on the public servants can also prove effective
in combating corruption. Media must play its ethical and professional
role of watch dog to unearth the corruption cases and sensitize the public on
gravity of these cases to administer justice. Our society can do a lot to
reduce the intensity of this problem but no single action will achieve more
than a limited improvement and some of the required actions may require major
changes in existing policies.
Our country has lost
many years of development effort because of eating up of development funds at a
very large scale and because of over charging for almost every item of
work. Corruption is not a problem that can be attacked in isolation. It
is not sufficient for the criminal law to search for bad apples and punish
them. Of course, the state may need to establish credibility by punishing
highly visible
corrupt officials, but
the goal of such prosecutions is to attract notice and public support, not
solve the underlying problem. Anticorruption laws can only provide a background
for more important structural reforms. Joe Biden had rightly said,
“Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s
patriotism”.
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