Since its inception, Pakistan has worked on about 11 accountability laws and three major accountability institutions at the federal level, in addition to several provincial anti-corruption laws and institutions, but despite these initiatives, acts and ordinances, the gangrene of corruption, gratification and mismanagement have been eroding the very foundation of the country.
According to the much talked about Transparency international report, having a scale of 0-100, with zero being “Highly Corrupt” and 100 being “Very Clean and honest,” Pakistan’s corruption score stands at 28, three points lower than last year, and is dragging deeper into the moat of corruption and instability. According to the report of 2020, Pakistan’s CPI rank was 31 and it was ranked 124 out of 180 countries. In 2022, the country’s corruption score has further lowered to 28, while it is ranked 140 out of 180 total countries on the index of corrupt countries.
In its report, Transparency International noted a trend in countries with vicious corruption and low score, particularly in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, anti-corruption institutions are fragile or in some cases lacking political will.
Targeted accountability can be more dangerous than no accountability as it destroys the very foundation of the system.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, former chief justice of Pakistan, while addressing the inauguration of the new judicial year, raised serious concerns about the efficacy of the entire accountability process and the NAB. He expressed serious displeasure over the performance of NAB. He further said that the growing perception that the ongoing process of accountability was lopsided and politically engineered was not good for the institution and prompt steps were needed to ensure that the anti-graft campaign did not lose its credibility.
As has righty been said by Justice Khosa, all the accountability-driven institutions, in particular, the NAB, has been used as a tool of political victimization. General (r) Pervez Musharraf, with the coalition of PML Q, exercised NAB against his political rivalries, and NAB was given a special task to change the loyalties of Politicians. This political victimization in the name of accountability has been the witch-hunt plan, used nearly by all governments. Maryam Nawaz, senior vice president of PML-N reiterated, “accountability first, polls later.” Under the paradigm of accountability, she means to Push and arrest Imran Khan, as he did with her father Nawaz Sharif, during his tenure of government. Sordidly, PTI’s accountability drive was also suspected of prejudiced partiality, as only opponents, PML-N, and PPP were pushed to face NAB references while its party members and coalition partners PML-Q, BNP, MQM, GDA, and JWP were enlisted as holy cows.
This vengefulness is not going to make this country free of corruption, looting, and grabbing. Seriousness towards impartial accountability is the need of time.
Targeted accountability can be more dangerous than no accountability as it destroys the very foundation of the system and creates incentives and red lines, which are inescapable but remain unspoken. Pakistan needs accountability, which should be across the board and impartial. However, across the board accountability drive should be the target of all institutions, including parliament, army, judiciary, bureaucracy and government without any exception and immunity.
Parliament, being the legislative authority, has the prime liability of self-check and balance, all members irrespective of either being in government or opposition should be open to accountability. Armed forces better have a transparent accountability process. People have the right to know where and how the defence expenditures are properly utilized. Last but not the least, the Judiciary, through its Supreme Judicial council, deals with cases of disqualification, mismanagement and embezzlement. This should be transparent to the public from time to time. That is the only way that would enhance the credibility of the accountability process. Otherwise, any witch-hunt drive would meet the same fate.
The writer is a Lecturer (English Linguistics) at the College Education Department, Government Of Sindh. He can be reached at rustamanisajjad@gmail.com.