We need to incorporate Quaid’s priorities laid down in his address to Constituent Assembly on 11 August, 1947, that “first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State. The second thing that occurs to me is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison. We must put that down with an iron hand – and take adequate measures as soon as it is possible for this Assembly to do so”.
In established democracies, public office holders, tasked with legislation and decision making are judged on a higher moral pedestal than that applicable to ordinary citizens. The economic nightmare Pakistan faces has been aggravated by greed based corruption within our paid civil or uniformed bureaucracy, the political elite and traders who have benefited the most, yet are not willing to pay all their dues and taxes, nor submit to transparent auditing for state funds allocated to them. It is because of low GDP-to-tax ratio, that Pakistan’s human resource development is rock bottom, with a crippling energy crisis and domestic cum foreign debt making the state insolvent and dependent on foreign aid. As if this was not enough, recent indictment by House of Commons Committee led by Sir Malcolm Bruce demanding that unless the Pakistani rich elite start paying taxes, the British tax payers cannot be burdened.
Those leading a life of luxury holding vast assets, in Pakistan and abroad, cannot seek legislative immunity from taxes on technicalities. Bankruptcy laws in USA allow a citizen to own single self-occupied house within or outside USA. As for issues of public morality or religious ethics being followed by public office holders, this varies from nation to nation and on public opinion. In France Mitterrand was elected because he paid for the child fathered from a mistress, while in USA Gary Hart, frontrunner in 1987 elections had to resign for holidaying with a mistress. In Pakistan, starting from Ayub Khan’s rendezvous with Christine Keeler, in Profumo’s swimming pool, to Musharraf’s late night parties and circus acts dancing with whiskey glass balanced on his head, at state owned residences, these transgressions have been done with impunity, more by those holding power through bullet, than the ballot.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
The latest incidence involving GOC Muree, arm twisting an honest Principal of Lawrence College Ghora Ghali to take back an indisciplined boy sacked by college, manifests the intensity of this crisis, where corruption, bribery and abuse of office have become a norm.
The RO should have scrutinized the tax retirns, NTN and assets declaration of candidates who submitted their nomination papers, instead they either intentionally or by sheer incompetence asked questions relating to knowlege of Islam and the scriptures. For past 63 years this country has been brutalized by corruption and brobery, which has made laws subservient to hard cash, mostly black money, and today Pakistan instead of being a modern welfare state of Jinnah Saheb has become a bastion of corruption, where men like Zia, Mush, AZ, Malik Riaz call the shots and rule the roost.
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