If the PML (Q)-led political coalition is going to run its election campaign on the basis of its performance as government for five years, it may like to rethink its strategy. This performance may appear to be very good with impressive economic indicators, but as depicted by the International Transparency, it is tainted with corruption, as high as to place Pakistan in the company of some of the most corrupt countries of the world.
And more embarrassingly, during 2007 the number of citizens who paid bribes in Pakistan increased to over 30 percent as compared to 15 percent last year. The TI survey, code-named Global Corruption Barometer (GCB), largely reflects the perception of the common man as compared to the country survey focusing on the corruption faced by businesses and corporate sector.
According to the GCB for 2007, despite an improvement over the previous year, police continues to be the most corrupt sector of Pakistan, followed by tax revenue authorities, utilities departments, registry, ie record of land titles and permits (licences) and political parties. Four sectors have shown a rise in the incidence of corruption from the last GCB survey.
THEY ARE: the military, revenue collection, registry and permit services and NGOs. The presently high incidence of corruption in the police is, however, a little lower than in the year before, mainly for the induction of motorway police.
Since the TI surveys invariably ensure gender equality, it is possible that women in Pakistan having lesser participation than men in outdoor activities, the readings for corruption in various sectors appear to be on the lower side. There is also some improvement in the media, political parties, parliament and judiciary. Ironically, only 20 percent of Pakistanis think that the government efforts to fight corruption are somewhat effective as compared to Singapore where 88 percent of citizens think that the government efforts to fight corruption are the most effective.
The GCB is essentially perceptive in nature, in that it explores how corruption affects ordinary people in their day to day life. Most of the people who pay bribes are those who desire extra 'speed' be assured for the resolution of their stuck-up problems or hope to gain access to services which they are entitled to by law.
The GCB survey conducted in 62 countries found political parties as the most corrupt, followed by police departments, while the religious bodies were the least corrupt in a 14-subject scale. The survey tends to give voice to those adversely affected by corruption and is, therefore, useful as a tool to understand their concerns and experiences.
Thus, in circumstances like ours at present, it would help the electorate to determine their preferences. The comparison with the state of corruption in India, though not intended by the survey, should give Pakistanis a vicarious satisfaction that after all their country is not faring too badly.
While Pakistan is more corrupt than India in the military, taxation, utilities and NGOs sectors, the reverse is true in political parties, religious bodies, and police, judiciary and education system.
Globally, the political parties are ranked as the most corrupt followed by police and then religious bodies. Mostly, the corrupt societies are also less developed, but the survey does take note of the rising incidence of political corruption in advanced countries like Japan and Spain. One in six in these societies thinks that their government actually encourages corruption rather than fighting it.
Generally speaking, over the last some years Pakistan's rankings in most of the international surveys, be they about human development, political freedoms or corruption, are extremely low, bracketing it with some of the least developed countries. Sometimes, of course, it looks that Pakistan is being intentionally maligned. But it must be conceded that our contributions to our negative image are no less substantial.
For instance, what logic can we offer for the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance which is exclusively aimed at overlooking political corruption of previous rulers? Hopefully, with the present leadership being clean by and large, at least financially, Pakistan may improve its ranking in this area. But much needs to be done to cleanse lower echelons of administration. For instance, the self-assessment scheme in taxation brooks no possibility of corruption, but still there is the need to grease some palms.
Similarly, there is a transparent mechanism provided in PPRA rules 2004 to secure bribe-free procurement of goods as well as award of building contracts within a stipulated timeframe; but the rules are often circumvented in the name of urgency. There does exist an adequate body of anti-corruption laws and organisations but implementation is weak, which has to be strengthened.
It was commonly hoped that on the International Anti-Corruption Day (December 9th) all the political parties vying for public support would give a clear commitment that their elected representatives would submit themselves to scrutiny, make public their lists of assets, eschew discretion in all administrative decisions, promise to fill public appointments under a predetermined criteria on merit; agree to publish all tender enquiries and decisions on the websites of all ministries/departments/organisations, other than the purchases related to national security.
The presently low ranking in fighting corruption calls for renewal of the pledge on the part of the people also to resist the temptation of fixing wheels to the files. Pakistan needs systems to be in place which will not let any bureaucrat overstep his authority.
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