Corporate America has witnessed, the sentencing of CEO of AOL to 85 years imprisonment, for financial irregularities, wilful deceit of shareholders and fudging balance sheets. Perhaps perjury is a crime only in Europe, USA and rest of the world, excluding the Islamic bloc countries like Pakistan.
It is ironical that while Quran considers perjury a serious crime, those who live and rule in Islamic Republic of Pakistan, have accepted it as a matter of routine.
The ease with which our public is taken for a ride and intentionally fed wrong information, can only happen here.
This does not mean that irregularities do not occur in the West, but when somebody is exposed or caught, the law takes him to task, irrespective of his political clout, power or personal wealth. Perjury or intentional mis-statement of facts and fudging figures, when on oath or before a public audience, is a crime that you cannot get away in developed civilised world.
President Clinton faced the wrath of the Congress, Senate and the nation, when he tried to hide facts in Monica Lewinsky affair.
The President of USA is the most powerful individual in the world today. Yet when he committed perjury, he was made to suffer publicly, because it was a matter of principle. This is how institutions are built and developed.
Nations make progress, when they enforce the "rule of Law" within their own geographical boundaries. Guantanamo Bay prison was established, because America wanted to escape jurisdiction of its Supreme Court, for violation of Geneva convention and human rights of prisoners allegedly caught for terrorism in Afghanistan. We may disagree with what America is doing, but even if it is a facade, they still have to be seen as following the law.
Theodre Rossevelt said," No man is above the law and no man is below it, nor do we ask any man's permission, when we ask him to obey it"
In Pakistan, the late Zia-ul-Haque recited the Holy Quran and promised to the nation on State telvision and radio, to hold elections within 90 days, only to recede from this public pledge on some flimsy ground or another.
We have witnessed the shameful treatment meted out to a rape victim in Balochistan, in a country which calls itself Islamic Republic. The victim had to flee the country, whilst those who were alleged to have committed this shameful act, were defended by the most powerful in this country.
The judicial process was scuttled, the police meticulously shredded all evidence of crime, inspite of national and international press coverage of this gory incident.
The daughters of Pakistan like Mukhtaran Mai will never get justice, because all evidence will be shredded by the guardian's of law, the police.
Pakistan's major government owned corporations like PIA, KESC, WAPDA, Railways etc, are all a victim of financial irregularities, fully exposed and yet no individual has been held accountable todate. Whether it be the irregularities in the purchase of locomotives by Railway, or the lease of A-310s by PIA or purchase of expensive B777s, nobody has been held accountable.
Individual's misplaced ego seems to be more important than the billions of public rupees squandered by powerful groups of people.
It took the Senate Committee months, to defer sale of PIA's own Airbus, which have been repaced by A-310s, that are as worse and defective as the airplanes that PIA is in a hurry to dispose of. Nobody dare to ask whether the replacement is economically feasible or useful for regional routes on which A300 used to fly.
Where are we heading for, when the State itself is seen to be violative of the law, that it is supposed to be a guardian of. An official dares to submit not just a fake graduation degree, but also a PHD, and yet nothing moves. Heavens should have fallen by now. Let us at least be seen, not to be a society on the verge of anarchy.
We need to enforce corporate reforms in government owned corporations, if we intend to enforce financial discipline in the private sector. Public confidence is a necessary, pre-requisite for enhancement of investment. The two DMDs of PIA, should not have been allowed to resign, but made accountable, only to give some semblance of rule of law and corporate ethics in Pakistan.