Corruption is now accepted as a fact of
life in Pakistan
Perhaps the greatest danger to Pakistan is corruption. We
can stand up to any hostile army trying to invade our sacred
land, but corruption is eating away at our foundation, like termites which ultimately
cause houses to collapse.
Owing to corruption, the government is not able to collect
enough revenue, making it necessary to borrow
from the
IMF, which ultimately makes the country poorer and adversely affects our
ability to defend the nation from terrorists and hostile
enemies.
Corruption has enabled Pakistanis to invest Rs85 billion during the past six months and
Rs512 billion in the past two and a half years in the Dubai property market.
The bulk of this money has been earned illegally by corrupt officials,
businessmen, politicians and similar black sheep in the country.
Owing to corruption, low-paid government servants like income
tax inspectors, customs appraisers, police inspectors and others are able to buy
houses in posh
areas and maintain lavish lifestyles, spending much more than their salaries.
There was a time when men were respected for their wisdom
(acquired through years of sweat and toil), even if they were poor. Today, the
poor man is treated with contempt because he is honest and does not take
bribes, even if he is in a position to do so. We think such people are fools.
Now, only those who have accumulated enormous wealth are respected, even if
they are highly illiterate, because they can buy those in positions of power
and can get anything done.
In the good old days, houses
and buildings were built according to approved standards. Construction was done
strictly according to specifications; there was no question of building 15 floors
when only five storeys were allowed. Such honest builders did not last long,
they have been replaced by unscrupulous people who don’t think it is wrong to
violate building rules and indulge in construction which is not in accordance
with approved plans.
How are they able to do it? They bribe the officials who are paid to ensure that
building rules are followed and peoples’ lives are not endangered. Both
unscrupulous builders and officials become wealthy as a result.
As they say in Urdu,
“Iss qoumi hamam mein sub nangay hein.”
(In the
national bathroom, everyone is naked.)
Will we ever see a
corruption-free Pakistan?
Consider the following facts:
1. The Benami Transaction (Protection) Act has been
pending for years, although India passed the law about
30 years ago. When corrupt persons do not have any “white” money (income on
which tax has been paid), they buy properties in the name of their friends or
even their servants with their “black” money so that the anti-corruption
department cannot take any action against them (there are hundreds, if not
thousands, of such properties in the country). Just last week, the National
Assembly Committee on Finance deferred consideration of the bill because the
Finance Minister and the Chairman FBR did not turn up to attend the meeting.
This law would allow the government to confiscate all such illegally acquired
“benami” properties. Needless to say, the sooner this law is passed, the better
it is for the country, but apparently our government functionaries think
otherwise.
2. To make bribing of government officials difficult, India has not issued any bank notes of denominations higher than
Rs1,000. Pakistan, on the other hand, has a Rs5,000 note, as well as readily convertible prize bonds of Rs40,000, Rs25,000, and Rs15,000 also.
The highestbank
note in the UK is that of £50, and in the US it is $100.
3. Recently the government succumbed to the demands of property sector
fraudsters and fixed property values far below their actual worth. In most
cases the fixed value is only 15% of the actual value. This means that the
government gets only six or seven rupees in tax instead of a 100 rupees.
4. One way of ‘whitening’ black money is for the corrupt person
to send it abroad through the“hawala” route, and getting it remitted back into his local
bank account. To prevent this, the government should not allow more than $3000
to be remitted into an account every month. But will it do that? No, because
some state functionaries are dishonest themselves.
Corruption is now accepted as a
fact of life. And Pakistan will never be free of corruption, because the
Pakistani state is itself the biggest facilitator of corruption.
Engineer, teacher, industrialist, associated with
petroleum/chemical industries for many years. Loves writing, and (in the
opinion of most of those who know him), mentally unbalanced. He tweets
@shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/38609/corruption-is-now-accepted-as-a-fact-of-life-in-pakistan/
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