The prime minister may have wanted to call in the chief of the country’s top accountability watchdog for a one-on-one explanation – but the bureau’s chairman thought it more appropriate to go ahead and give the explanation publicly.
Not needing to wait for the ‘summons,’ National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chief Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari held a press conference on Thursday – a day after the Cabinet had expressed consternation at the claims made in a soon-to-be released NAB report, including one that held that corruption in Pakistan amounts to between six and seven billion rupees on a daily basis on account of inefficiency, corruption and tax losses.
In an apparent snub to the Cabinet, the top anti-corruption watchdog’s chief stood by his claims, arguing that the figures are based on annual direct losses as evident from various indicators.
Addressing the press conference, he pointed out that, globally, tax contributes 17-20% to the economy, while in Pakistan, tax contributes only 9%. “Corruption is no longer party or incident centric but is now an attitude across the board,” he said, adding a rough estimate suggests that the already incredible figure could reach up to Rs 10-12 billion.
Bokhari said that by releasing the figure he did not mean to provide an agenda to the caretaker setup but rather aimed to keep the country on the right track.
“Gone are the days when the military staged a coup against the elected government, and the judiciary endorsed it,” he said, while stressing upon an honest bureaucracy.
The NAB chairman said indirect losses which have not been quantified by the bureau include Agriculture sector GDP untaxed‚ revenue department‚ land grabbing and encroachments‚ loans defaults‚ over staffing‚ ghost schools, ghost employments‚ wealth tax losses, custom duties and duty drawbacks. He said that, in the energy sector, losses due to loadshedding are approximately Rs960 billion per year – 2% of Pakistan’s GDP.
“Corruption has become a longstanding issue of Pakistan; even Quaid-e-Azam had talked of its elimination.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ