The state of corruption

Dismissal of all civilian governments in recent memory has been on the basis of mismanagement and corruption. True that the charge sheet included other equally damning indictments by a military adventurer or a recalcitrant civilian President in danger of being sidelined by the party that elected him to the post, yet few in this country would dismiss the veracity of the allegations of corruption.
In this context, the allegations hurled by 'rogue' PPP leader Zulfiqar Mirza against PPP ministers (provincial and federal) are, in the public perception at least, accurate. Similarly the counter allegations of corruption hurled by those accused against Mirza are also believed by the public generally. In short political corruption is not in doubt.
Corruption and mismanagement (deliberate or based on inappropriate appointments) has been the hallmark of Pakistani governments with no one convinced that politicians have been unfairly victimised in terms of bringing charges to the courts. Politicians, irrespective of party affiliation, define unfair victimisation as politician-specific ignoring corruption by the bureaucracy, the army as well as the judiciary which, they claim, exceeds their own collective corruption. In other words the matter is one of degree. Thus there is a need to have an across-the-broad accountability mechanism in place from which politicians must not be exempt, however, they must not be the only group targeted.
However while those not in government can refer to the media's focus on political corruption as victimisation of sorts yet the government cannot argue similarly as it is its prime responsibility to investigate corruption and bring the accused to the courts with adequate proof, irrespective of which group the accused belongs to. The Supreme Court has accused the government of not only derailing investigations on matters where it has taken suo motu notice by changing the senior investigator conducting an impartial inquiry, but also compelling witnesses to withdraw their damning testimony.
The major factor responsible for corruption today is said to be the promulgation of the National Accountability Ordinance (NRO) by Musharraf which wiped the slate clean for not only politicians but also bureaucrats and army personnel during Benazir Bhutto's period of rule. The NRO was not applicable to the time PML (N) ruled the centre - perhaps the single unintended favour granted by Musharraf to the Sharif brothers he abhorred given that this fact remains their major selling point to the public today.
All the opposition political parties are agreed that corruption has reached unprecedented levels. This perception is backed by several studies undertaken by NGOs including Transparency International. In 2009 when the cost of living was not as high as today Transparency International ranked Pakistan 42nd in its Corruption Perception Index - down five places from the 47th position of a year earlier. The government's response at the time was to let loose the Minister of Interior on Transparency International Pakistan chapter even though the downgrade was undertaken by the international branch of the NGO.
That the TI was not targeting only the politicians was made evident in the report as well as during subsequent press conferences where the following facts were highlighted: (i) Pakistan's Army is the most corrupt institution in Pakistan, however, Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has taken notice of some very serious violations of public procurement rules by the Defence Housing Authority, the arrest of a major for stealing the property of Pakistan Railways as well as the National Logistics Cell scam implicating three army personnel though there has been no arrest yet; (ii) unauthorised allotments by nazims and fraudulent change in land records by revenue officers reported during the last one year in the media need investigation by a judicial tribunal and land records should be computerised within one year; (iii) the judiciary must be brought within the ambit of an accountability law; and (iv) the Present District Government System has been rated as more corrupt by 66.48 per cent respondents, than the previous District Government System.
Two years later nothing has improved and to add insult to injury several state-owned entities (SOEs) have suffered massive haemorrhaging due to senior appointments made on the basis of nepotism, the routine use of these SOEs as recruitment centres by the ruling party and last but not least, using the state's investigative arm to derail court ordered investigations in Pakistan Steel, Pakistan International, Pakistan Railways, National Insurance Company Limited, Hajj scandal etc. Meanwhile, the Accountability Bill remains stalled in the relevant committee of the national assembly with the two major parties accusing each other of dragging their feet on the issue.
Corruption in all major state-run entities as well as in the federal and provincial governments accounts for over one trillion rupees per annum. While many may consider this sum as an overstatement yet if one considers the 500 billion rupees per annum corruption attributed to Federal Board of Revenue alone by the former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin this amount may well be an understatement. Opposition parties including the PML (N) and the rapidly emerging Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaaf have focused on this sum as the solution to our economic crisis. Or in other words they maintain that with the departure of President Asif Ali Zardari's government corruption would decline massively. The PML (N) goes one step further and argues that over 300 billion rupees per annum (2.4 billion dollars more than the 1.5 billion dollar of Kerry-Lugar that has not yet been released in its entirety as well as the sum released by all other multilaterals combined) that is extended annually to bailout poorly-managed corruption-ridden SOEs would end with their government in the centre - an amount that would preclude the need to borrow from the International Monetary Fund or from any other multilateral or bilateral.
While these objectives are salutary and must be supported, yet the fact remains that corruption is so ingrained in our psyche that its elimination may well require a generation - a generation more educated, more aware of its rights and responsibilities, and therefore less tolerant of leaders/federal ministers/senior bureaucrats and army personnel engaged in commissions in all procurement-related matters as well proactively engaged in other corrupt activities. This would compel governments to strengthen their investigative branch and delink it from political influence. One can only hope that adequate investment in education, a cure for not only corruption (as a citizenry informed of its rights would be less amenable to corruption) but also a remedy for fundamentalism would be the main pillar of a national consensus strategy.