Daily Times

Corruption in Pakistan has become a social instinct. Almost in all walks of life, multiple means are in practice and masses are engaged in acts with opinion as if corruption is their basic right.

In the past, it was a strange item and merely practiced on a small scale. But things have turned the table around and earning by unfair means have fanged in society.

Corruption has many forms, and, off all that white colour crime is a town talk. Bribery is a white-collar crime in which money, a favour or something else of value is promised to, given to, or taken from an individual or corporation to sway his or its views, opinions, or decisions. For example, if an electoral candidate offered bottles of liquor in exchange for votes, it would be considered a bribe. But in societies like Pakistan, serving foods and flavors are considered hospitality. You may not have a big crowd without lavish lunch. Governments of all times try to fill all gaps by having some civil development work done. In this connection, every MNA and MPA is blessed with a huge sum of amount to get into the gut for face value saving. The sitting government came otherwise with at least intention to avoid this practice but eventually seems to compromise against ill norms of the past, or the war will start ultimately creating unease if not toppling of the government.

Corruption is now in blood and flesh and has taken everything away. Political status is used to get everything by the hook. May that be development work or appointment on attractive position, the political affiliation is counted more than merit.

Apparently, everyone cries about corruption and appreciates accountability, but no one likes accountability and searching out dashes of corruption in government affairs, but given the sad realities of our country, it is an indispensable task so far.

Corruption remains an important obstacle for Pakistan where it is still apparent to be widespread and systemic. Petty corruption in the form of bribery is prevalent in law enforcement, procurement and the provision of public services. The judiciary is not seen as independent and considered to be shielding corrupt political practices from prosecution. Various efforts over the past years have tried to develop institutional mechanisms to address these problems. A National Anti-Corruption Strategy, which was developed in 2002, offers a comprehensive plan for tackling corruption.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) may have missed something in conduct, but at large it has also brought fruits to taste. There have been recoveries and have created awareness in society to avoid. NAB by its making is committed to eradicating corruption and it is very pride to consider Pakistan as a role model for SAARC Countries in the eradication of Corruption.

Despite hard corners for various reasons, it is due to NAB efforts that, Pakistan is the only country whose Corruption Perception Index (CPI) according to Transparency International Report has been decreased from 175 to 116 during in recent past.

This enables Pakistan to become first Chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum which is a great achievement for Pakistan as well as NAB. Eyebrows are raised to know that since its inception NAB received about 3, 43,356 complaints from individuals and private/public organizations.

During the period, NAB authorized 11, 581 complaint verification, 7587 inquiries, 3846 investigations, filed 2808 corruption references in respective accountability courts and overall conviction ratio is about 76 per cent.

Petty corruption in the form of bribery is prevalent in law enforcement, procurement and the provision of public services

This quantum of work seems huge and there is a dire need of manpower and other resources. Despite a shortage of staff and funds, NAB’s major achievements have been the recovery of around Rs 287.763 billion of ill-gotten money which was deposited in the national exchequer which is a remarkable achievement of NAB.

Political parties and bureaucracy may have their blood and flesh, and some actions taken by NAB may invite criticism, but the NAB efforts for curbing the corruption are appreciated even at international forums. Transparency International (TI) has praised the anti-graft efforts of NAB with sitting set up under Justice (Rtd) Javed Iqbal as said in a report released by the Berlin-based non-governmental organization (NGO) on Thursday. The report released quite recently highlighted the 2019’s performance of the global countries against corruption. TI appreciated Javed Iqbal over best performance showed by NAB combined investigation team in different graft cases.

It is said in the report that the combined investigation team of Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog fulfilled all requirement of justice besides recovering Rs 153 billion from the corrupt elements. TI said that 530 references had been filed by NAB, whereas, the overall ratio of conviction was witnessed up to 70 per cent from the accountability courts. The organization has also praised the anti-corruption awareness campaign by NAB.

The sole objective of NAB establishment is broad-spectrum, despite recent achievements, NBA has a long way to go with vision by creating an enabling environment for a corrupt-free society, to work to eliminate corruption through a comprehensive approach encompassing prevention, awareness, monitoring and combating. However, the federal cabinet has approved the NAB) Ordinance, 2019, followed by approval by President of Pakistan on the same day.

With the approval of NAB Ordinance 2019, it is believed that NAB will no longer be allowed to act against government employees. Moreover, the proposed ordinance also states that the property of government employees cannot be frozen without a court order. Furthermore, if the accountability watchdog cannot complete an investigation against a suspect within three months, the accused will be entitled to bail.

In addition, NAB will now only be able to proceed in corruption cases of Rs500 million and more. Moreover, according to the amendment ordinance, NAB’s jurisdiction over matters relating to tax, stock exchange and IPOs have been curtailed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and building control authorities will be the sole authorities tasked to act on all such matters. In addition, for land evaluation purposes, NAB will seek guidance from the Federal Board of Revenue or the District Collector.

NAB must embark upon counseling packages to arrange country-wide seminars to boost is soft image aimed at sharing achievements and improve the working mechanism to create an impression of impartiality to seek the support of masses.

The writer is Chairman, Department of Parasitology, Sindh Agriculture University,Tandojam