If asked to identify two top issues confronting this society, few would hesitate to name corruption after terrorism. Pervasive as it is, the problem could not be a part of our genetic instructions. Many in the developed Western societies would be easily tempted too by the lure of easy money, but systemic checks stand in the way. In our situation those presiding over the system stand in the way of checks.
Corruption in high places is rampant in this country in its various forms from cronyism and nepotism to bribes, kickoffs, embezzlement, willful loan default, tax evasion, and money laundering. Going by Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, with the passage of time, things have gotten from bad to worse, worst, and back to bad. In 2009 Pakistan was at 139th position out of 180 countries rated on its index, 143rd out of 178 in 2010, 134th out of 182 in 2011, and 139th out of 174 countries in 2012. The story behind these figures is all too familiar to us. The next year, i.e., in 2013, things improved somewhat as Pakistan moved up to number 127 among the 175 countries rated.
The rating though may not reflect a significant change in conditions. In fact, it reminds one of an anecdote narrated by a journalist. He was asked by a VVIP-- in an indirect reference to our last government's reputation-- why do people from a certain part of the country tend to be so corrupt? The journalist offered an interesting illustrative answer. Those people acted like a bunch of hicks eating mangoes and throwing around the waste to be seen by all, he explained, whereas when others enjoy mangoes they take care to properly dispose of what need not be seen.
Once perceived as social stigma financial corruption, over the years, has become quite acceptable. Otherwise reasonable people have lost the capacity to be shocked by it. It is even defended as something that purportedly is prevalent in Western democracies. Examples are trotted out of European companies paying heavy bribes, with the knowledge of their governments, to rulers of various Asian and African countries to win lucrative contracts. The argument does not hold water. First, because bribing outsiders is not the same as bribe giving and taking at home. Besides, morality is never a consideration in the imperialists' quest for and control of weaker states resources. In fact, some of the world's bloodiest wars have been fought, still are being fought, over economic control.
Second and more importantly, the shady deals they make fetch profits and jobs for their home countries. Conversely in our case instead of bringing benefits to this society, money is stolen from the people or made from shady foreign deals at their cost to be invested abroad. Bulk of the money made from loot and plunder of our national resources is either invested in businesses or pricey properties in the UK, France, the Gulf states, and other attractive destinations abroad or stashed away in Swiss banks. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar revealed a while ago, apparently in an unguarded moment, that some $200 billion - though he would not say this was ill-gotten laundered money-owned by Pakistanis is sitting in Swiss banks. The resources that should be going into human resource development, job creation and other socio-economic advancement schemes have been flowing into the bottomless pit of our ruling elites' greed.
Third, whilst Western democracies have no qualms about using bribes or naked power to exploit other countries resources, when it comes to domestic affairs there is little tolerance for financial misconduct. Back in 2009, six British MPs and peers were expelled from Parliament and jailed for involvement in what came to be known as expenses scandal. They were punished for misusing public money through false accounting, wrong overnight allowance claims, and rent for self-owned houses. The highest wrong claim involved what would be petty cash by our standards: a mere 13000 pounds. Then there is the example of former French president Nicholas Sarkozy who has been questioned several times since leaving office for alleged acceptance of illegal donations from a business house for his 2007 presidential election campaign. Here we have several instances of government/political parties leaders accepting highly expensive gifts for personal use from foreign governments as well as local businessmen in exchange of favours at public expense. So far no one is asking any questions.
Tax evasion by the rich and powerful of the land is a huge problem, costing an estimated Rs 1000 billion annually to the national exchequer in terms of revenue lost. Yet successive governments instead of making a serious effort to have the elites pay their dues to the state look towards donor agencies or other governments for economic assistance that comes with strings attached, and sometimes good advice. Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state, had openly counseled Islamabad, during a speech at a Global Leadership Coalition conference, to tax its own rich before asking for American tax payers' money. "Pakistan cannot have a tax rate of 9 percent of the GDP," she said, " while land owners and all the other elites do not pay anything or pay so little it's laughable." Her advice rolled off our leaders' ears like water off a duck's back.
For obvious reasons the elites have no intention to end corrupt practices. An accountably bill presented by the previous government in Parliament was a brazen attempt at giving a clean chit to wrongdoers amongst its own ranks. The present government nearly halfway through its term has introduced National Accountability Ordinance (Amendment) Bill, 2015, but without any enthusiasm to push its passage. And the National Accountability Bureau is yet to become an independent anti-corruption watchdog it is suppose to be. It is useless to expect the same parties with similar interests to do something different. The PTI has been making a lot of noise about bringing in anti-corruption reforms through a strong accountability law, ensuring independence of the Accountability Bureau, introducing conflict of interest legislation, and making substantial increase in the tax to GDP ratio. If and when we have such systemic reforms in place, we can hope to have a solid institutional foundation on which to structure socio-economic progress and prosperity.
Once perceived as social stigma financial corruption, over the years, has become quite acceptable.