There must be no plea bargain in any corruption case
ISLAMABAD: The issue of plea bargain requires a little deeper analysis than the self-congratulatory recovery of a fraction of the ill-gotten wealth by the National Accountability Bureau. As an engineer by profession, I will limit my comments to corruption related to simple government projects.
If a person in authority makes one rupee as illegal gratification from a project contractor, he may be giving him a benefit of ten rupees for building a school (a simple example). He will use substandard materials and supervision on a Rs100 project, resulting in the collapse of the school roof, as happened to numerous schools during the 2005 earthquake. Remember the photographs of schools that were destroyed because of inadequate steel bars in the roof slab, killing thousands of children?
In the so-called plea bargain, the nation has effectively lost Rs99 and numerous lives. There must be no plea bargain in any corruption case. The culprit should be given exemplary punishment. In China, such persons are often given death sentence. It does not necessarily root out corruption totally, but it has managed to reduce it significantly. More importantly, in China, many high-quality projects of public importance have been completed on time and within budget. Can someone give me one example of an on-time and within budget completion of a major government project in Pakistan?
Dr Ahmed Qidwai
Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2017.
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