There is much noise — in parliament, in superior courts, in the media — about corruption. Politicians, businessmen, generals, judges, journalists — everyone who matters seems to be involved in corruption, one way or the other. Some embezzled government funds, others got their loans written off and yet some others got residential plots allotted in posh areas of the federal capital. It looks like we are living in a state of kleptocracy.
The political class in Pakistan, quite like in many other developing and under-developed countries, has been marred with allegations of corruption for the past two decades. Successive civilian governments were sacked in the 1990s on corruption charges. Accountability bureaus were established to file cases against politicians charged with corruption and many of them spent months or years behind bars. Civil bureaucrats, allegedly involved in corruption, also got their share of trials and persecutions.
But there are others — military officers, judges and journalists — who abused public power for private gain, received illegal advantages and patronage but have never been questioned by the state authority or the preachers of morality and piety. In fact, the preachers are themselves among the beneficiaries of generosity of both the civilian and military regimes. Military personnel and judges are out of the ambit of any sort of accountability by the executive authority on the pretext that they have their own mechanisms of accountability. But these mechanisms, however, are rarely seen in action. General Musharraf’s NAB Ordinance (2002) exempted the armed forces from its ambit.
Recent revelations, though not something astonishing, indicate that 16 judges of the Supreme Court and 11 journalists were given plots by the incumbent government. Journalists were given plots out of turn. Some journalists, however, challenged the allegation of ‘out of turn’ allotment and claimed that the High Court decided in their favour. One wonders how the worthy journalists established their ‘right’ to own a residential plot in Islamabad at subsidised prices and the honourable judge accepted their plea.
Across the border, the Press Council of India has held that government accommodation, concessional land, free air tickets and company shares given to journalists, news agencies and newspaper establishments and owners, were ‘undue favours’. A committee constituted by the council undertook a comprehensive study of the subject between 1985 and 1995, and concluded:
“The Committee of the Council is of the view that it is the responsibility of the newspaper establishments to provide accommodation to its employees. The Committee noted that the Punjab and Haryana High Court in its judgment has held that journalists are not entitled to government accommodation as they are not employees of the government. The Court has said that there were no rules, regulations or guidelines governing such allotment with the Chandigarh administration…the existing rules were only meant for government servants and there was no question of bringing the journalists in its ambit. The Committee further noted that…no further housing facility should be provided to the journalists and the existing allotments of the government accommodation … should be charged for at non-subsidised rates….”
Who is more corrupt? The political class or the educated class? A survey of the houses and plots in Islamabad can reveal who owns what. How many parliamentarians own bungalows in Islamabad and how many are owned by bureaucrats, senior military officers, judges and journalists, given to them by governments? Who became a millionaire overnight? These people must be identified now!
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2010.
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