Fight for accountability

Accountability and transparency have never figured large in the life of the nation, be it from the smallest peasant farmer to the highest in the land. Politicians and state institutions are the least transparent of all, but they are out of kilter with a climate of accountability and transparency that is going global. The whistleblowers of our age — the Edward Snowdens — are proof positive that governments are vulnerable to those who would lift the veil, and the fallout from the Snowden revelations and WikiLeaks is going to be with us for years to come. At a less controversial level, there are organisations such as Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) which has become something of a betenoir for successive governments.



A TIP report issued on April 25 says that the government must prioritise effective monitoring systems that will give the citizenry the power to hold every element of government accountable, which is probably the very last thing that every element of government would want now or at any time in the future. The report itself is bleak — a catalogue of undemocratic and despotic dynastic political parties, a weak justice system and corruption, corruption everywhere. The state is held captive by private interests and the people have lost trust in the processes that perpetuate what passes for democracy in Pakistan.

It would be easy to characterise the report as just another example of a downward spiral, but it is also a chance to turn a threat into an opportunity — particularly for civil society. Rather than banging the table at yet another example of how bad things are in Pakistan, it is time for civil society in its many and varied forms and formats, to play a more coordinated and proactive role. The TIP report is evidence, evidence that can be used as leverage if only the disparate and ill-coordinated organisations that make up what amounts to the political opposition in Pakistan, could find a way to unify and present a countervailing narrative that had heft and traction. If we are ever to see accountability in Pakistan it will have to be fought for. Starting now.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2014.

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