EDITORIAL: A major reason Pakistan keeps asking for International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts and complain about stringent conditionalities that come with borrowings is the scourge of corruption in high places. Yet corruption continues to thrive undermining social justice, rule of law, and sustainable development. Even the Fund is getting wary about unscrupulous elites siphoning off international donors’ money.
Completion of the 6th Review, hence, has been linked with the establishment of institutionalised framework for anti-corruption measures. In a Letter of Intent (LoI) to the IMF Executive Board the coalition government has given an undertaking that it would set up a task force with inputs from international experts and civil society organisations to strengthen the institutional framework for an anti-corruption drive.
The annual assets declaration already obligatory for legislators and elected public office holders is also to cover non-elected advisers, special assistants as well as bureaucrats.
The letter also goes on to make promises that look good on paper but have little connection with reality, such as that where it says “we are undertaking the 2nd review cycle under the UNCAC [United Nations Conventions Against Corruption] implementation mechanism, and will publish the full report, including the findings, analysis and recommendations for improving anti-corruption framework.”
Notably, Pakistan is among 181 countries which have ratified this Convention, a legally binding anti-corruption instrument, with a mandatory requirement for each State Party to ensure, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its legal system “the existence of a body or bodies, as appropriate that prevent corruption.”
Yet one such existing body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), has just been made virtually toothless. It is true that the NAB Ordinance brought in by a military regime was deeply flawed aimed as it was at harassing/punishing non-pliable politicians, later on also used by two successive civilian governments to torment their opponents.
It contained several malevolent provisions that needed to be tossed out. It is also true that several amendments recently made to the NAB Ordinance are not only regressive but self-serving. Major beneficiaries of the new legislation are many legislators themselves facing accountably in multiple cases of alleged financial wrongdoing.
It remains to be seen how the government is to reconcile the contradiction between this legislation (it has been challenged by former prime minister Imran Khan in the Supreme Court) with the undertakings it has given to the IMF. Needless to say, the promises being made can bring great benefits to this state and society. But will they lead to effective implementation, too? There is no easy answer to this question.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022