Civil servants have vast discretionary powers and they tend to abuse them because there is hardly any accountability.
LAHORE: One wonders why the mentors of Pakistan’s Islamic ideology and those who want to enforce Sharia in the land of the pure don’t launch a jihad against corruption, of which much is found in the country and at all levels of its society.
And take the case of our neighbour India, where Anna Hazare is becoming another Mahatma Gandhi. Who do we have doing what he is doing in India? No one, and not that there is no need for someone to launch a jihad against it.
One primary reason for corruption is the cumbersome rules and convoluted procedures set down by governments at the federal and provincial levels with regard to various economic activities that businesses or even individuals wish to carry out. Furthermore, civil servants have vast discretionary powers and they tend to abuse them because there is hardly any accountability.
The Federal Public Service Commission should be tasked with selecting the head of an independent anti-corruption authority and this should be given the power to carry out accountability across the board without fear or favour. No state institution or department should be immune from this process.
ST Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2011.
