ISLAMABAD: The people sitting at the helm of affairs were the real obstacle for accountability, transparency and corruption-free governance. The excellent work done by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed by Supreme Court of Pakistan proved that institutional capacity was there but the people at the top did not want them to function properly.
Asad Umar, MNA and leader of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), said this while speaking at a seminar called ‘Accountability and Transparency: Embodied Access to Information Model’ at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Monday.
Asad Umar, while highlighting the importance of corruption-free governance, said that accountability could not be established without ensuring transparency in the systems. It was for that very reason that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government introduced Right to Information) Act as its top most priority, he added.
The PTI leader further added that it was only to protect the corruption and cover the financial scams that our governments were resorting to concealing information or making access to extremely difficult for the common man.
He said that it was he who offered the audit of all 342 MNA’s present in the National Assembly, but the ruling party did not allow it to happen.
Abdul Jalil, an expert in financial management, used the occasion to present details of various instruments that were available to discourage corruption in our governance systems.
He said that the absence of relevant laws and lack of precedent in our judicial system were the major hurdles in ensuring accountability and transparency.
He said that our institutions including FBR and FIA were handicapped in investigating financial irregularities whereas the legal framework of the audit was highly deficient.
He explained further that in matters related to financial irregularities, FIA was dependent on the inspectors that were not qualified for financial investigation.
Shakeel Ahmad of SDPI earlier explained various dynamics of the Embodied Access to Information Model (E-AIM) and emphasised the need of understanding the fundamentals of the accountability.
He said that access to information, especially being aware of the roles and responsibilities of individuals and institutions was key to making them work and function in a responsible and accountable manner.
He said that the inputs from experts and inputs from stakeholders would play a pivotal role in creating an effective information model.
