Systemic corruption is considered a strong constraint on economic development and hurts the poor citizens of the country, and is generally explained as the misuse of authority by the elected members of the parliament and law enforcement agencies for private gain. There is no debate about the fact that we as a society are completely plunged into such corruption.
Political corruption exists at the highest level of the political and legal system – commonly at the level of strategy and policy formulation – when politicians and civil servants authorised to make and enforce laws in the name of the public use their authorities to sustain their power.
The problem in Pakistan is that while there are anticorruption laws in place, they are unfortunately obsolete. They prevent a certain class of people or organisations from being drawn into their purview, thereby granting them an almost indirect protection.
It has been said that power and authority do not corrupt – fear corrupts, possibly the fear of a loss of power, government officials reduces accountability. Corruption in the judicial system compromises the rule of law; and corruption in bureaucracy results in the incompetent provision of services.
Secondly, systemic or rampant corruption has negative impact on social and economic system of the Pakistan. People think that one of the reasons behind damaging effects of bad governance is the prevalence of political corruption that eventually results in lawlessness and the biggest obstacle in the way of economic development. Society always blames government officials without realising that the individual himself is consistent of giving kickback, gifts and bribes to everyone involved (directly or indirectly) to his work.
Politics is explained in terms of control, influence, power and authority. Regrettably, political parties use authority to limit political opponents and gain political dominance instead of sincere and honest efforts to eradicate corruption.
It is extensively recognised that white-collar corruption is related to a lack of good governance and weak accountability mechanism of the country.
Fighting political corruption is a sure way of enhancing public trust, but regimes are not doing enough to address it. Political and systemic corruption doesn’t just cost Pakistan in terms of money. Its cost comes in terms of public trust of the country; corruption often has strong correlation to organised illegal and criminal activities.
It’s natural to think of elections when we think of political and systemic corruption. Unfortunately, when these are the elections decided by money not votes, the corruption of politicians and public servants retains many shapes and forms. Bribes, cronyism and kickbacks effect directly, by the innocent citizen of the country and also undermine justice, economic development, and destroy public trust in political leaders. Pakistan does not have efficient sources of controlling, detecting, and prosecuting political corruption and white-collar crime.
Political corruption remains notoriously challenging to investigate and prosecute. The government departments need to be more transparent in their decision-making.
Moreover, our legislators must understand the importance of whistle-blowing laws which promise protection to a civil servant, public or private worker, politicians or any other person exposing cases of fraud, bribery and corruption. These would give a trust to the people/society to expose dishonesty without any fear of being persecuted by the regime itself.
The government in power and the opposition can mutually legislate on the issue. That must be followed by formation of a well financed and independent Anti-Corruption Commission (comprising of retired Court judges) with the support and power of people of Pakistan.
Strong law enforcement agencies, judicial system and accountability mechanisms enable anti-corruption agencies to carry out their business and avoid internal abuses that can harm their credibility.
Strong and robust in-house controls and accountability mechanisms empower anti-corruption agencies to perform their missions and avoid internal exploitations that can harm their trustworthiness.
In Pakistan, control of corruption is commonly treated as the duty of government from judiciary to politics, from banking to defence, from construction to media, from security mechanism to police, in recent years, media around the world has turned out to be one of the most corrupt. But, at the same time better media means less corruption. Media is the strong force, which can play an important role in eradicating corruption from the roots.
The government officials, politicians, businessmen and common citizen of the country can make a beginning by having all the written-off bank loans retrieved voluntarily, which is adequate, to prove their honesty and loyalty. The equality factor is also vital: the rule of law and statute must be seen to apply equally to all inhabitants of the country without any discrimination, regardless of race, gender or religion.
