Today, our society is full of white collar crimes. Affluent, respectable people commit these crimes in the course of their everyday business.
In our society, a big array of crimes are now categorised as white-collar crimes like income tax dodging, stock manipulation, consumer fraud, bribery, and withdrawal of kickbacks, larceny, and distortion of commercial information. Computer crime is also a newer one. It enables embezzlement and/or electronic scam without leaving a paper trail. Besides the monetary costs of this type of crime, that amounts to the tune of billions of rupees every year, white-collar crimes have several social costs as well. Due to the rising incidence of white-collar crimes in the country, one would hope and expect for this difficulty to be handled very seriously by the criminal court of justice of Pakistan. Still, white-collar culprits are treated very leniently compared to other kinds.
They aren’t caught for bail-before-arrest is granted to them without demur, their hearings always get delayed in the courts, and only financial fines are charged upon them in the end. Furthermore, in our corruption-ridden country, such unlawful doings do not destroy a person’s social standing as much and many white-collar criminals continue to live lives of relative respectability. Unless the stigma associated with these crimes becomes more acute, these influential criminal with ‘power’ and ‘prestige’ will continue with their actions.
SIDRA AGHA
Islamabad