In the wake of accountability

Around 800 years ago, King John of England was facing severe opposition from the public because of his poor policies. The people were unhappy with the sweeping powers of the king who was not formally accountable for his actions. Facing the serious risk of being overthrown by rebellion, the king issued a historic document called the Magna Carta that placed him and all future sovereigns of his country under the rule of law. Magna Carta established the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law. It introduced the first standards of accountability in government. The same principle helped cultivate a culture of democratic norms and strengthened parliament over a period of time, to the extent where the role of the Crown diluted from being absolutely unaccountable to merely being a symbolic title. The essence of the entire journey of 800 years can be encapsulated in a single word — accountability.

John Acton, the first great modern philosopher of resistance to the state, once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The delicate relationship and separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial functions, also known as trias politica, was one of the foremost principles of governance in ancient Greece that established the trend of free accountability in the democratic world. The basic function of accountability is to ensure that the power, bestowed on behalf of others, is not misused. Prioritising and ensuring accountability in a transparent and institutionalised manner translates into the creation of a judicious system and helps in the broader construction of a contributive citizenship.

Aware of its significance, Quaid-e-Azam made a remarkable statement on August 11, 1947: “One of the biggest curses from which India is suffering … is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison. We must put it down with an iron hand.” The intention was to articulate a system of governance that would not mindlessly imitate the flaws of the bureaucratic system of colonial India that was designed to enslave people and to squeeze the resources of the colonies.  Transformation of a system of governance takes time, and unfortunately Mr Jinnah did not live long enough to change the colonial legacy into a transparent system of governance.

For the next few decades, accountability never remained the focus of government, as military dictators and political players took the stage one after another. The autocratic political atmosphere of the 1990s turned accountability into a means of political victimisation, and the process could neither remain unbiased nor institutionalised under the pressure of political exigency. During General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s era, accountability became synonymous with political bargaining while selective justice taught the political elite a hard lesson. The return of democracy (at least theoretically) in the last decade, thus incepted a new age of political reconciliation. The agony and frustration of former chairman NAB Fasih Bukhari was evident when he told the press that corruption taking place in Pakistan amounts annually to over Rs5,000 billion. He looked helpless when he stated, “The nexus between the legislature and executive which aggravated corruption in the ’80s and ’90s has now become monstrous.” The murder of a NAB officer in early 2013 crystallised the strength of the evil-doers and the weakness of the institution, signifying a perpetual state of hopelessness.

Fast-forward to 2014-15, NAB has reemerged on the national horizon as an institution that is gaining momentum and confidence of the people. Overcoming the impression of being a puppet of the government, it is gradually flexing its muscles. While leader of the opposition, Khursheed Shah demands a decline in the activity of NAB in Sindh, Imran Khan is demanding a probe into the Nandipur project. The hue and cry that the PPP has raised amid the crackdown on corruption and the confidence of a staunch political opponent like Imran Khan in the institution is a reflection of the reputation it has earned recently. The action against Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood, the crackdown on corrupt officers and political leaders, and the multiplying number of cases dealt by NAB during the last couple of years are not isolated incidents. These are the early symptoms of trias politica.

To the credit of democracy, the state will eventually have to act in accordance with the will of the majority of the country. Rampant corruption cannot remain unchecked in a country where 70 per cent of the people live below the poverty line, 25 million children are deprived of education and 80 per cent women do not have access to health services. The extravaganza of loot and plunder will have to be halted in a democracy, where poverty and unemployment are the biggest challenges for the majority. Like King John of England, the political and bureaucratic elite of the country have to eventually bow down to their knees and stand accountable to institutions that will act freely and judiciously. The self-correcting nature of democracy has an innate habit of cultivating accountability. The process can only be delayed to the benefit of the corrupt, yet cannot be surgically segregated from the body of democracy. The mammoth growth of electronic media, the emergence of social media and the consequent rising awareness about civic rights will augment trias politica further. Corruption will not be tolerated by the suppressed citizenry of the country. To capitalise on the vision of the Quaid, “We must put it down with an iron hand.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2015.

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