Corruption

History
• The irony of history is that instead of eradicating
corruption from business and services, the
politicians themselves started yielding to the
temptation of amassing unearned wealth.
• The Quaid-i-Azam gave a call to fight the
biggest curses the subcontinent was suffering
from — bribery, corruption, nepotism and
favouritism — in his very first address to
lawmakers on August 11, 1947.
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• Successive governments, elected as well as
those appointed by coup-makers, have made
numerous laws and regulations that have failed
to achieve the desired results because of
structural flaws in these measures and their
selective application.
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• Soon after independence, the Prevention of
Corruption Act of 1947 was enforced.
• It is essentially an anti-bribery law and has
largely been used against state employees who
have no protectors or allies in the higher layers
of the administration.
• Political corruption has only marginally been
touched by this law.
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• Two years later came the Public and Representative
Offices (Disqualification) Act (PRODA) that was
designed to punish holders of public and elective
offices for corruption, jobbery, bribery, favouritism,
nepotism, and embezzlement.
• The measure was selectively used against opposition
elements to the extent that its repeal figured high on
the agenda of the Constituent Assembly members
who tried to clip Governor General Ghulam
Muhammad’s powers in 1954.
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• The Ayub regime promulgated the Elective
Bodies (Disqualification) Ordinance in 1959 to
punish holders of public office or members of
any elective body for misconduct by
disqualifying them for seven years.
• Ayub Khan’s main objective was to put political
leaders out of action and many of them obliged
him by opting for banishment from politics for
seven years instead of facing trial.
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• Ziaul Haq revised the Ayub formula for getting
rid of politicians who were not with him and
had them disqualified by mixed civil-military
tribunals.
• The politicians who supported his plan to
postpone the solemnly promised election under
the slogan of ‘accountability first’ were not
only kept free to make personal fortunes but
were also encouraged and helped to do so.
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• As if the failure of selective use of flawed
accountability measures devised during 1947-
1990 was not enough, the first Nawaz Sharif
government set up special tribunals to haul up
Benazir Bhutto for misconduct and only
succeeded in being condemned by national
and international observers for launching a
witch-hunt.
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• The strategy was changed in 1997 when an
Ehtesab Act was adopted and a Chief Ehtesab
Commissioner with wide powers appointed.
• The law was applicable to the judiciary and the
armed forces as well as to holders of public
offices and bureaucrats but it was not sincerely
implemented.
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• Finally, Gen. Musharraf came up in 1999 with the National
Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance for investigating
complaints of corruption against holders of public office or
any citizen.
• A usurper of power, however, could not possibly come with
clean hands. His bona fides became suspect when his
accountability chief, Gen Amjad, chose to quit his job
instead of making exceptions in case of the favourite cows.
• The law also gained considerable notoriety because of the
rather generous use of the plea bargain provision which the
people saw as an escape route for the corrupt.