Conference on corruption: ‘A thousand judges couldn’t change Pakistan unless their verdicts are followed’

As long as corruption is regarded as a necessity, society will treat it as a norm.

KARACHI:

A thousand judges couldn’t change the face of Pakistan because the judgments they pass are never implemented, was the candid assesment of Prof. Akmal Wasim, an associate professor at Hamdard School of Law who was speaking at a conference on corruption on Saturday.

“The three major institutions of state - the judiciary, executive and legislative - are at war with each other,” he added. “Only ethical integrity can change the system.”

Wasim was addressing the two-day international conference organised by the  Hamdard School of Law at the Karachi Marriott Hotel.

“Corruption has become a status symbol and once a society accepts [it as a] norm it is hard to eradicate it,” he pointed out. The adoption of corruption by the common man was increasing as corruption was perceived as a choice or a necessity. “Necessity out of the two is [worse] as the common man feels that there is no other way left,” he said.

Intellectual dishonesty needs to also be combated. “General Zia is a prime example of how religion and politics should not be mixed because he exemplified intellectual corruption by fooling people using the thing they held dearest to them - religion.”

But he went on to warn that if you take transparency out of accountability, it becomes a “witch-hunt”. Corruption cannot be curbed by just putting up at the courts boards with Quranic verses written on them.

“Corruption is a moral question, not only an offence punishable by statute,” said Justice (ret’d) Nasir Aslam Zahid. Corrupt acts can easily be camouflaged by moral justifications.

Abuse of public office for private gain has ranked Pakistan at 124 out of 144 countries in a World Economic Forum report.

“If power is executed fairly then corruption would essentially decrease,” asserted Prof. Dr. M. Abdul Wahhab of the University of Chittagong. Corruption, by definition, was to deny a person their due share, something he felt disintegrated a united Pakistan. “The constitution was used as a tool to seek absolute power and advance vested interests,” Wahhab concluded.

The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Admiral (ret’d) Fasih Bokhari said that the NAB ordinance was an excellent law but the government wanted to amend it because of its apprehension that it was used as a political tool. “NAB is not independent,” he stated. “It is a political wing.”

And netting the ‘big fish’ from the river of corruption would not staunch its flow - a mechanism is needed. The incomes of retailers and businessmen must be documented to bring them into the tax net.

Asad Sayeed, the director for the Collective for Social Science Research in Pakistan, emphasised the creation of a truth and reconciliation commission. He pointed out that there were 47,500 companies registered under the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan but 39% of them are not registered with the Federal Bureau of Revenue and about 30% do not file their returns.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2012.