Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has voiced deep concern over Pakistan's accountability institutions being almost on the verge of collapse, and has called for improved enforcement of Public Procurement Regulatory Rules and effective working of Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) to combat corruption in public sector spending.
TIP chairman Syed Adil Gilani, speaking at the annual members' meeting at a Karachi hotel, disclosed that TIP has been trying to sell the idea of PPRR for adoption by provincial governments, and has also been pressing for the establishment of PPRAs in all the provinces to fight corruption. Utilisation of the huge PSDP and other budgetary allocations made by the governments in development and non-development spheres, need to be regulated through a transparent mechanism for the procurement of goods and services.
Elahi Baksh Soomro, a former Speaker of the National Assembly, while speaking on the occasion has claimed that corruption in Pakistani politics emerged in the wake of the 1958 martial law and prior to that, no Pakistani Prime Minister was corrupt. According to him, martial laws and military regimes have, in fact, laid the foundations of corruption in the country, because they had to pick up politicians to become what he called their "front men," with a view to gaining legitimacy.
Soomro has rightly observed that the cancer of corruption could be combated only through good governance. Arshad Zuberi, TIP trustee, said that TIP must seek the support of parliamentarians for the implementation of public procurement rules, and also convince them for the establishment of accountability bodies.
Exemptions are justified in exceptional cases where secrecy has to be observed. However, exempting Wapda and the Ministry of Defence from engaging in commercial activities might not be justified. Engr. M.A. Jabbar, chairman of SITE said the present taxation system negates the spirit of the Constitution, which requires the executive to be separated from the judiciary.
But in taxation, the prosecutor is also the adjudicator, and the Finance Bill presented by Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar manifests the worst examples of amendments, whereby judicial forums are being tamed by the executive machinery. Whatever its causes and motivations, corruption and embezzlement in the public and private sectors, in its myriad forms and guises, including "commission" (which has since gained respectability), has come to be almost accepted as a way of life in the country, which is very unfortunate.
There is a need to distinguish between bureaucratic corruption, which can be likened to only a "small change" as compared to the perceived mega corruption in the higher echelons of power. The TIP meeting in Karachi seems to have focused on bureaucratic corruption, which, incidentally, is a result of the institutional decline occasioned by bouts of non-representative rule in our country, though the so-called representative dispensations have, at times, been no less guilty of pursuing questionable agendas at the cost of the long-term interests of the country.
Almost every government in Pakistan, whether representative or non-representative, has claimed "accountability" and the provision of prompt and inexpensive justice as its major goal, and has used the dragnet to catch the corrupt elements, though they have mostly succeeded in netting only the small fish. Secondly, the first target of all non-representative governments in the country, as elsewhere in the Third World, has been the Constitution, which lays down parameters for the functioning of state institutions, and also regulates the conduct of holders of public office.
There have been instances where even the elected holders of public office committed gross legal and constitutional transgressions, causing no less harm to the country. The modus operandi has been to create a legal or constitutional vacuum in which to operate. Widespread tax evasion and misuse of bank loans have been the most visible forms of financial corruption in Pakistan. According to a rough estimate, the annual tax evasion in Pakistan amounts to around Rs 218 billion.
Another revealing statistic is that about 90 percent of all defaulted loans are concentrated among a small number of influential individuals and families in the top 10 category. Ironically enough, loan write-offs, termed by some as "a bank robbery," have come to be accepted as a fact of life. This is one side of picture. On the other side are those living below the poverty line whose number is said to have mounted to over 50 million. Obviously, they are the victims of the free run on national resources.
Such distortions have generated most of the problems we are facing today. Good governance implies a capacity to turn public income into human development outcomes - a yardstick we have yet to measure up to. The most effective antidote against corruption, whether bureaucratic or non-bureaucratic, is good governance and rule of law, while selective application of law and favouritism lie at the root of all that ails Pakistan today.
Systemic weakening and erosion of national institutions over the years has done incalculable harm to the country. This is a major reason why institutions of accountability in Pakistan are on the verge of collapse today, as pointed out by TIP. There is an urgent need to curb the element of discretion. Corruption and misgovernance will automatically disappear.