The major concern of this country is money. Everybody craves luxurious living while their countrymen are dying of starvation and disease. This crazy race for money and hedonistic living explains why society, as a whole, has become unconcerned about corruption.
Corruption in the public and private sectors has greatly damaged the socio-political and economic structure of society. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was launched to provide efficient countermeasures for eradicating corruption from various departments. It was established on November 16, 1999, with the promulgation of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, immediately after the military coup by Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999.
Its mission according to the official website, "is to work to eliminate corruption through a comprehensive approach encompassing prevention, awareness, monitoring and combating."
The bureau has two principal officers: the Chairman and the Prosecutor General of Accountability in Pakistan. The Chairman is the head of investigation, and serves a four-year term. Lt-Gen Syed Mohammad Amjad was the first chairman of the bureau. Naveed Ahsan is the current chairman. He had formally sent in his resignation in the last week of February, but was asked by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to continue until the government finds a replacement.
The Prosecutor General is the head of prosecution, and serves a three-year term. Lawyer Irfan Qadir was the first Prosecutor General.
The bureau likes to stress that it recovered over two hundred and forty billion rupees from corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. Human rights organisations have labelled the Bureau, however, as a vehicle for detaining former officials and party leaders and a deviation from the normal justice system. The main job of the Bureau chairman has been to identify, capture and interrogate the corrupt. But, unfortunately, the Bureau has proved to be yet another government department, pocketing money for self-aggrandizement. It is believed that NAB was used to persecute political enemies of its mentor rather than cracking down on those busy in immense corruption, financial crimes and tax frauds.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, while hearing the case of Haris Steel Mills in the last week of February, was shocked to know that NAB was claiming money on the recovered amount from the accused in the Rs 9 billion Bank of Punjab loan scam. The Chief Justice observed, "Every department will come and claim money tomorrow if this practice is allowed."
An investigating officer of NAB referred to a notification issued on July 6, 2000, for keeping the share out of the recovered money.
The past record showed that NAB has not only been unsuccessful in eradicating corruption but also illegally misspent money from public funds looted by the crooked and claimed a huge commission without any lawful authority. On one hand, the country is facing huge revenue losses, fiscal crimes, corruption and financial frauds and, on the other, the department feels no guilt in claiming 40 per cent commission on the recovered amount. It seems NAB has been a co-sharer in the looted public funds.
Almost every government has provided relief to tax-evaders through various amnesty schemes. That is why the black economy keeps rising rather than showing any down turn. The top tax managers sitting in the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are jointly concealing names and the result is obvious - the entire state system is fast collapsing. The people engaged in these activities know that after two or three years, a fresh amnesty scheme will be announced and they will conserve their assets by paying a lesser amount than what they are required to pay. It is a joke with the people of Pakistan, who have been paying their taxes sincerely at much higher rates than those offered to the tax-evaders.
One of the well known amnesties given is in the form of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). About this Ordinance, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf and various other parties and individuals say the ordinance is against the fundamental rights of the citizens and a negation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), ratified by Pakistan in August 2007. This Ordinance has not only damaged Pakistan's image but is still eroding the credibility of the political parties.
Tax-evaders, rent-seekers (i.e. the expectation of extra earnings through gifts or favours), mafias engaged in organised crimes, money-launderers, arms traders, drug barons, large-scale and organised drug networks and smugglers, responsible for huge revenue losses to the national economy, were mainly not arrested by the Bureau and if some of them were arrested, huge sums were taken by the department as commission. The laws against racketeers are not enforced and if they are, the penalties are risible.
Pakistan has been facing challenges of corruption, fiscal crimes, tax evasion and plundering of taxpayers' money for long; still, no serious effort has been made to counter these acts. Corruption has remained a serious problem and has became institutionalised. Pakistan has become a place where rampant and institutionalised corruption has become a way of life.
Corruption in most of the government departments, charges of malpractices against several federal and provincial ministers, high-handedness of the people in power and development of lawyers as yet another power group are some of the factors that have been rampant and, together with resurgence of communal and sectarian violence, pose a potential of governance failure in Pakistan. At a time when the country is heading towards the promise of scaling down of militancy and extremism, the emergence of other dangerous threats means that Pakistan continues to face challenges and a society free from social evils may not be established in the foreseeable future.
Another depressing trend is that the income inequality is rising. The shift of money from the poor to the affluent class is growing. Income disparities among the Pakistanis has been steadily amplifying. So the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer.
Commonly, the policymakers have credited this to economic policy, but they have ignored the impact on income allotment of tax revenue losses generated by the underground economy.
Corruption is deep-rooted in our culture and eradicating it will not be an easy task. A strong judiciary is a pre-requisite, because only when the culprits know that they can be held accountable for their deeds will they be discouraged. If the administrators show political will by seizing all ill-gotten assets for the safety of the poor, the people will certainly respond positively by paying their taxes carefully and honestly. This will manage and eventually eradicate corruption in Pakistan.
This involves a courageous and transparent leadership having the will to curb the ballooning state expenses and setting standards for the rest of the community. Otherwise, little positive results can ever be attained in combating corruption, regardless of how many institutions like NAB would come or go.