Towards a corruption free Pakistan
The world, including Pakistan, observes the International Anti-Corruption Day. Corruption is no longer a national matter but a transitional phenomenon that affects all societies and economies, making international co-operation essential to prevent and combat it.
The fight against corruption has assumed a global dimension. Realising the grave socio economic threats posed by corruption, nations of the world have committed themselves to the eradication of corruption through the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
Pakistan too faces the menace of corruption in all spheres of human activities. It is clearly the nation's most formidable challenge and a threat to our future. The campaign against corruption is one in which we all have a direct and important stake. Corruption retards the pace of development and impedes developmental activities. Corrupt practices create hindrance in government's efforts aimed at providing basic social services and alleviating poverty.
In an environment where there is lack of integrity, investment is discouraged and the objective of accelerating economic development, increasing prosperity and eliminating poverty receives a severe setback. Corruption in government spending leads to serious reduction in impact of development programmes and results in perpetual increase in cost of maintenance of public assets.
Corruption has emerged as a potential threat to the stability of societies and is causing breaches in world social order. It threatens our long established good values which have been evolved over centuries of civilised struggle.
The menace of corruption is embedded in multitude of vices and challenges. Its roots are linked to injustice, mistrust, extremism and terrorist activities. It would be needless to add that the ultimate victim of corruption and poverty is human dignity itself.
While it is a universally accepted fact, that among many other causes, corruption emanates primarily from poor governance. Governance has to be good in its manifestation if corruption is to be defeated. The essential components of good governance are supremacy of Rule of Law, Accountability, Transparency and Predictability. In their absence the edifice of state institutions collapses and so does public confidence, giving rise to overall hopelessness and despair.
Corruption is too complex a phenomenon to be tackled with the enforcement based approach alone. To create mass awareness against corruption, the government has specially focused on the youth which are the engine of positive change and our future flag bearers. The media, too, has played an extremely pivotal role in supporting the fight against corruption by exposing the corrupt and spreading public awareness against this evil.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the premier international anti-corruption initiative, is the result of a long negotiation process, in which Pakistan has participated actively.
Over 100 countries, including Pakistan, have so far ratified it, which has enabled Pakistan to effectively benefit from the Convention's mechanisms of international co-operation to combat corruption and to effect recovery of assets stashed by the corrupt in foreign countries.
In 2007-08 more than two dozen cases involving requests for legal assistance, extradition, and evidence/information were processed with counterpart international agencies like Home Office, UK, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Australian Federal Police and Serious Fraud Office, UK etc.
Today Pakistan is well represented in the major global as well as regional anti-corruption initiatives like International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), ADB-OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and Pacific and the OIC Anti Corruption and Enhancing Integrity Forum (ACEIF).
As per the Transparency International Report 2008, Pakistan is ranked 134th out of 180 nations in the anti-corruption rating, which implies that it is the 46th most corrupt country in the world. We may recall those difficult times in the early nineties when Pakistan was declared the second most corrupt nation after Nigeria. In the last few years, Pakistan's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score has also gradually improved from 2.1 in 2004 to 2.5 in 2008.
The silver lining is that despite the political, economic and security related upheavals of 2007/2008, Pakistan's anti-corruption efforts are bearing fruit, though we still have a long way to progress to attain at least the halfway mark in the world ranking.
The process of Accountability is essential to sustain good governance and forestall a free for all chaotic state of corruption in our society through integrated efforts of all stakeholders, including the anticorruption agencies, civil society, media etc. Our society must be transformed from the current mindset of accepting corruption as a way of life to one of total rejection and zero tolerance.
If Pakistan is to achieve sustained socio-economic development with healthy foreign investment, corruption must be eliminated at all costs. A strong political will, rule of law, backed by an honest and incorruptible judiciary, will surely help achieve the dream of a strong, progressive and prosperous Pakistan.
The fight against corruption has assumed a global dimension. Realising the grave socio economic threats posed by corruption, nations of the world have committed themselves to the eradication of corruption through the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
Pakistan too faces the menace of corruption in all spheres of human activities. It is clearly the nation's most formidable challenge and a threat to our future. The campaign against corruption is one in which we all have a direct and important stake. Corruption retards the pace of development and impedes developmental activities. Corrupt practices create hindrance in government's efforts aimed at providing basic social services and alleviating poverty.
In an environment where there is lack of integrity, investment is discouraged and the objective of accelerating economic development, increasing prosperity and eliminating poverty receives a severe setback. Corruption in government spending leads to serious reduction in impact of development programmes and results in perpetual increase in cost of maintenance of public assets.
Corruption has emerged as a potential threat to the stability of societies and is causing breaches in world social order. It threatens our long established good values which have been evolved over centuries of civilised struggle.
The menace of corruption is embedded in multitude of vices and challenges. Its roots are linked to injustice, mistrust, extremism and terrorist activities. It would be needless to add that the ultimate victim of corruption and poverty is human dignity itself.
While it is a universally accepted fact, that among many other causes, corruption emanates primarily from poor governance. Governance has to be good in its manifestation if corruption is to be defeated. The essential components of good governance are supremacy of Rule of Law, Accountability, Transparency and Predictability. In their absence the edifice of state institutions collapses and so does public confidence, giving rise to overall hopelessness and despair.
Corruption is too complex a phenomenon to be tackled with the enforcement based approach alone. To create mass awareness against corruption, the government has specially focused on the youth which are the engine of positive change and our future flag bearers. The media, too, has played an extremely pivotal role in supporting the fight against corruption by exposing the corrupt and spreading public awareness against this evil.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the premier international anti-corruption initiative, is the result of a long negotiation process, in which Pakistan has participated actively.
Over 100 countries, including Pakistan, have so far ratified it, which has enabled Pakistan to effectively benefit from the Convention's mechanisms of international co-operation to combat corruption and to effect recovery of assets stashed by the corrupt in foreign countries.
In 2007-08 more than two dozen cases involving requests for legal assistance, extradition, and evidence/information were processed with counterpart international agencies like Home Office, UK, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Australian Federal Police and Serious Fraud Office, UK etc.
Today Pakistan is well represented in the major global as well as regional anti-corruption initiatives like International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), ADB-OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and Pacific and the OIC Anti Corruption and Enhancing Integrity Forum (ACEIF).
As per the Transparency International Report 2008, Pakistan is ranked 134th out of 180 nations in the anti-corruption rating, which implies that it is the 46th most corrupt country in the world. We may recall those difficult times in the early nineties when Pakistan was declared the second most corrupt nation after Nigeria. In the last few years, Pakistan's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score has also gradually improved from 2.1 in 2004 to 2.5 in 2008.
The silver lining is that despite the political, economic and security related upheavals of 2007/2008, Pakistan's anti-corruption efforts are bearing fruit, though we still have a long way to progress to attain at least the halfway mark in the world ranking.
The process of Accountability is essential to sustain good governance and forestall a free for all chaotic state of corruption in our society through integrated efforts of all stakeholders, including the anticorruption agencies, civil society, media etc. Our society must be transformed from the current mindset of accepting corruption as a way of life to one of total rejection and zero tolerance.
If Pakistan is to achieve sustained socio-economic development with healthy foreign investment, corruption must be eliminated at all costs. A strong political will, rule of law, backed by an honest and incorruptible judiciary, will surely help achieve the dream of a strong, progressive and prosperous Pakistan.
We will make our homeland .
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