The corrupt bureaucracy and democracy of Pakistan

Corruption and bribery have been the bane of every society in various degrees throughout the ages. All prophets, saints, political and social scientists have crusaded against the vicious and malicious consequences of corruption.

In our country corruption is just like the oil that makes the wheels of the government run, for the structure of our policy is such that people on all rungs of government have satisfied their conscience one way or the other that graft and bribery are the only way they can make a decent living.

With regard to corruption and violence Rousseau once said: "It was only when the serpent entered society in the form of private property that the life of man changed from prosperity to adversity."

Corruption is the mother of all evils. It breeds and promotes all others conceivable vices in society. It is responsible for lawlessness, disorder, injustice, turmoil, frustration and anarchy. It not only ruins the institutions and the system but also brings about deterioration and decadence in the moral, spirit, character and panache of people. The standard of living of people and triumph or discomfiture of a government greatly lies with the dimension and scope of corruption in any country.

Most of our governments have been dismissed on corruption charges but no one has yet been punished for being corrupt. Corruption has become a way life and acquired a new meaning and respectability in Pakistan. Today, corruption originating from the top has permeated all strata and classes right to vendors and milkmen.

Transparency International has listed Pakistan as the third most corrupt country in the world after Indonesia and China. Transparency International has been formed by many persons who had once served in the World Bank and other international organisations.

The cancer of corruption has eaten into the vitals of all institutions of Pakistan. So long as we are aware of the inimical effects of corruption, we must not let it go on. We must combat it with full rigour and vigour. It is primarily a product of bureaucratic culture
The administrative personnel do not perceive catalysts in the task of national reconstruction and, for they see themselves as dispersers in favour and treat the masses as recipients of patronage.

In Pakistan, corruption has become a way of life, the poor, feeding the rich - unshakeable and immutable. Children of corrupt officials with salaries often thousand rupees go to schools where free alone costs more than the salary of their parents. On the other hand, children of honest and righteous officials go to substandard schools, resorting to pillion-riding or hitch-hiking.

Every government since the regime of Ayub Khan has patronised and promoted corruption. At present, corruption is an art practised and patronised by all the haughty and mighty in Pakistan. It is being pursued most dishonourably without any fear and accountability by the powerful and influential people.

We have miserably failed almost in every domain including agriculture, education, health, population control, law and order and even defence. On the other hand, we have made outstanding headway in corruption.

If we scan Pakistan's history, we will learn that corruption was little known before the regime of Ayub Khan. Politicians like Liaquat Ali Khan, Nazim-ud-Din, Fazal Haque, Tamiz-ud-Din, passed away penniless. Even Sikandar Mirza worked for a living during his exile days in England. Today, unfortunately, the pace of corruption is promoted by the very leaders whose first and foremost duty is to combat and eradicate it. Instead, the whole structure and system of the government is being erected on incompetence, approach, nepotism, corruption and bribery which will, it not checked in an opposite way, utterly wreck every institution and department.

Three Indian Federal Ministers resigned from Prime Minister Narasimha "Rao's Cabinet following the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charging them with corruption. They were accused of receiving, between 1983 and 1991, more than 21 million dollars from a Delhi-based business magnate, Suredra Jain, to secure contracts or in exchange for favours. The Indian PM had given the CBI the green signal to charge sheet the three sitting ministers and to file cases against them in the Supreme Court. Can our FIA take similar action against our minister?

The bureaucrats and politicians across the political divide have combined into a most sinister venture "of plunder. They do subvert any genuine attempt at accountability. The task of extinguishing the burner of corruption is made more difficult by institutional fairly and legal loopholes.

The long and strong hands of corruption seem to spare no sector, either it is small or big. The diabolical extent of corruption particularly in the police service has broken all records where police stations are sold to the higher bidders among police officer, who are then free to make as much money as they can.

Efforts of the FACC have ended in fiasco to punish the corrupt since the FACC has found out many cases of massive fraud a heavy misappropriation. Unfortunately, the corrupt are highly place and well-connected in a changing political scenario in which they have strong political connections. That is why successive anticorruption committees over the decades came with a bang and vanished with a whimper.

The evasion of income tax by the landlords, mill-owners, business magnates and lawyers, etc., is pernicious to the economy of Pakistan and eventually hurt the whole society.

The corruption to be seen among our ruling politicians does have some specific dimensions. It has very distinct feudal undertones. The task of making headway in the social sector is generally treated with contempt. A sense of abomination is reflected in most significant areas like education, health and population planning. Karachi's story has become very tortuous and complex but a large part of the problem is the inadequacy of the feudal mind to comprehend the urban challenge and sympathise with the travails of the citizens.

A corrupt society cannot survive indefinitely, for it is against the law of nature. When corruption becomes a way of life, nothing goes right. Even dispensation of justice ceases to exist.

Corruption either of past or present is equally punishable under all laws. During early seventies, there was a proposal of enactment of Islamic laws of amputation of hand for theft. The late Governor of NWFP Arbab Sikandar Khan Kalil humorously but scholarly suggested that hands of all those people who had constructed big bungalows in posh towns with unfair money should be cut first to meet the demands of justice.

Due to vague concept of accountability a very small number of people work with honesty and assiduity while the majority normally prefers to tow the easier path. Although some people of our society are not jealous of other and do not like to compete for worldly needs since they think this may disturb their clam and cost life yet the evil of amassing more and more wealth at the cost of others had now entered our society, or instance, a few years ago, people looking for bridegroom for their daughters used to go for an honest person. Now their primary consideration is to see that their prospective son-in-law must have maximum money.

Our generation was advised by the elders not even to look at ill-gotten money. The elders were so particular about honest living that they would not accept an invitation to a meal from a person who lived beyond his means. Society used to abominate persons receiving bribes or indulging in other corrupt practices. People used to avoid having association with persons known to be corrupt. Curiously enough, today we are least concerned about our responsibility to our countrymen. Our first and foremost concern is only to fill bags of money by hook or by crook. Do we bear any mark of compunction on our faces and avoid facing the honest people keeping in view the apprehension of being wiggled?