Senator Farhatullah Babar has said that fundamental issues in corruption namely exempting sacred cows from accountability, turning a blind eye to institutional corruption, and misusing accountability for political re-engineering have never been addressed, due to which anti-corruption laws and institutions were no more than a sham and a scam.
He was speaking at a dialogue organised by the HRCP in Lahore on accountability laws and policies in Pakistan today.
He said that from Independence Day till the present day National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the history of anti-corruption and accountability had been a dismal story of selectivity, sacred cows and political witch-hunt.
Corruption does not mean financial corruption only, he said. Misuse of authority, favouritisms and monopolisation of opportunities are also types of corruption, he added.
“Will the Kargil misadventure, sheltering Osama Bin Laden and nuclear proliferation would ever be investigated in earnest, and the culprits brought to book?” he asked.
The issue of institutional corruption is not even understood, let alone addressed, he said. He raised questions about the allotment of land for defence purposes, which were subsequently used for other purposes, and all past irregularities condoned with a stroke of the pen through an executive order, without investigation, without accountability.
The fight against corruption will not succeed unless it is across the board, he said. Why the judges, generals and journalists cannot be held accountable through the same accountability mechanisms that investigate politicians and bureaucrats, he asked. “Who will guard the guards and pass judgement on those judging others for corruption?” he asked.
The argument that some institutions have their own accountability mechanisms is a sham, he added.
The single most effective remedy against corruption is transparency and the tearing apart of the shroud of secrecy, he maintained.
But, it is possible only through right to information (RTI) legislation, but the RTI law, despite having been endorsed by Senate Committee on Information two years ago, is elusive, he said. Instead, he said, the government decided to bring in a new law that is against the principles of maximum disclosure and minimum exemptions.
He said that the Charter of Democracy (CoD) stated that politically motivated NAB is to be abolished and replaced by an independent accountability commission. The media will have freedom of access to information regulated by the law.
The CoD said that all military and judicial officers will be required to file annual assets and income declarations, like parliamentarians to make them accountable to public.
The CoD also envisaged setting up T&RC to acknowledge victims of torture, imprisonment, state sponsored persecution, targeted legislation and politically motivated accountability.
These provisions need to be implemented, he said.
The seminar was also addressed by HRCP Secretary General IA Rehman, former DG FIA Tariq Khosa, former AG Salman Raja and others.
