The clean-up continues. Maybe

The sheer folly of the decision that those found guilty of corruption would keep working in FIA is breathtaking

There is at least one truly Orwellian point in the latest statement by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. He was referring to the purge of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which is supposed to be Pakistan’s apex crime investigator but which appears to have both lead boots and a propensity for corruption. A propensity so marked that the interior minister has set up a committee comprising officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to investigate. This is hardly likely to be a popular move within the ranks of the FIA. The interior minister has vowed to weed out corrupt elements, but has said that he had no intention of conducting a witch-hunt, at which point enter George Orwell.



Having robustly — and we believe rightly — decided to clean up the FIA, the interior minister went on to say apropos of the witch-hunt that those found guilty of corruption would remain in service and continue to receive their salaries, and those deputed to the FIA from other departments would be returned on being found to be corrupt in their services to the FIA. There is nonsense, there is utter nonsense and then there are the workings of the government of Pakistan. The sheer folly of this decision is breathtaking. It gives the lie to the government’s desire to free the country of corruption as, far from punishing those found to be wrongdoers, they are rewarded with their lucrative posts and salaries and allowed to continue without let or hindrance, and heaven forbid ever actually being charged with whatever offence they may have committed. This makes a mockery of the entire exercise. Corruption in the FIA is being institutionalised rather than eradicated, as corrupt elements will remain within the organisation. Disingenuous in the extreme is the interior minister’s assertion that those found to be corrupt “will not be allowed to play any role in the department”. Does he really think they will sit in their homes or at their desks and never ever seek to influence people and events around them? Clean up by all means, but use a flamethrower not a fly-whisk.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th,  2015.

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