Accountability or witch-hunting
The process of accountability must be credible, or at least seem to be fair. If the public mood solidifies on the perception that a form of sixteenth century witch-hunting is in progress, accountability will fail, that would be a real disaster for the future of democracy in Pakistan. Some References against former PPP Federal office-holders have been filed before the Special Tribunals constituted under a law existing in the Statutes since 1977. Accepting (in the case of elected representatives only) the French style of the accused being guilty until proven innocent, the fact remains that PPP did not corner the market on corruption, it has existed since Pakistan became independent, the last PPP regime just finessed it to a new level of sophistication. If one has to highlight felonies and misdemeanours, the names of those who were allotted commercial plots on I.I. Chundrigar Road (old McLeod Road) at throwaway prices between 1947 and 1971 should make interesting reading.
Singling out PPP for accountability invites criticism implying motivation, while the immediate objective of denying them electoral power could perhaps be achieved, it is already providing a backlash of sorts that may have ominous portents in the future, political short-sightedness is a disease afflicting all successive governments in Pakistan. If the reports are true and a huge amount of money has been salted in individual external accounts (and given that the beneficiaries are ready and willing to part with their ill-gotten gains), the backlash of mass public opinion would be combined with a campaign of misinformation funded by the war chest, inadvertently giving PPP a weapon which may lead to electoral victory (if not this time, the next time around). If the stories in the media about the money pilfered are true, then such a success would have intangible repercussions, not excluding a bloody martial law as one consequence.
The process of accountability has to address itself to certain main concerns, particularly the period to be taken for enquiry. With the unfortunate hanging in 1979 of former PM, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, an era from 1958 to 1979 ended, a new one started, little more than a decade, it encompasses the regimes of late Gen Ziaul Haq, present President Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who was Gen Zia’s de-facto Prime Minister, Former Prime Ministers Junejo and Benazir Bhutto and the incumbent PM Mustafa Jatoi. The second area of enquiry should be what benefit, monetary or otherwise was derived by individuals through exercise of undue influence of public office. The third question of concern would be what punishment should suit the crimes alleged, while the fourth concern would be how to remedy the situation. The last concern would be earmark for those who are to sit in enquiry and judgement thereof, on the premise “Cast the first stone only those who have not sinned”, or some such, hardly possible but nevertheless worth well attempting.
The enquiry should include all politicians who have occupied public office or have benefited from their political party being in power (including friends, relations, etc), also bureaucrats, uniformed personnel, banking and other public sector executives besides businessmen beneficiaries. There can be a priority list established about known (1) corrupt individuals and (2) cases of malfeasance. Complaints should be invited from the general public, who are more perceptive about the acquisition of inordinate wealth by unfair means than the official government agencies, who are influenced by the attitude of their immediate superiors to please the power-that-be. There has been no known case of people blowing police whistles on themselves, however altruistic the thought. Very blatant cases of corruption far up the pecking ladder and/or abuses of power should be tried in the first instance, it is only when the highest and the mightiest are brought to book will action be taken to be a deterrent. To preclude a blizzard of spurious complaints (1) all anonymous complaints should be unilaterally burnt and (2) false allegations should carry the same penalties as would have been levied if the accused individual was found guilty (3) unless of course the court determines that it was made purely in good faith without any vested interest. The tribunals should take suo-moto notice of allegations made in the media.
As regards punishment, there should be no ambiguity in the scale, an individual who uses his/her public office for any personal gain should be given life imprisonment and all his/her personal assets confiscated. Public office is a sacred trust, there cannot be a quantum or measure for bad faith, any abuse of power should attract the maximum punishment, that should be deterrent enough. If there is deliberate malfeasance leading to the deaths of innocents e.g. import of spurious milk powder, contaminated palm oil, sub-standard goods and commodities, etc then the person should be given the maximum penalty of death as well as confiscation of assets. Friends and relations who have benefited in any manner and who do not give back the illegal wealth to the State after a due warning to do so voluntarily should be given prison terms and have all their assets confiscated. Unless draconian measures are implemented, we will have a repeat of the looting of the public treasury year after year, regime after regime.
The question arises where can we find those worthy of investigating the alleged crimes and sitting in judgement thereof? Our investigating agencies are corrupt to the core for the most part thereby expecting credible prosecution from them may be stretching credulity, susceptibility to bribes makes motives suspect and prejudiced. After the investment companies had fleeced the public, the investigating agencies themselves went into a fleecing act to the detriment of the poor investors. Recently a case is hitting the media headlines about Fauzi Ali Kazmi, a close friend of the husband of former PM Ms Benazir, Asif Zardari. Kazmi is alleged to have obtained a loan of Rs 300 million for a parallel Duty Free Shop without any collateral, both the loan and the permission allegedly due to Zardari’s influence. Statement to this effect to a Magistrate was given out by the Government. If the scam was not so serious, it would be laughable, on the basis of the evidence it will be impossible to convict him on any count except perhaps to give him a parking ticket. The smart rumour in the streets is that money is supposed to have changed hands to get a safe “confession”, the torture and the beatings are alleged to be “Noora Kushti”, on the premise of “killing the snake without breaking the stick”. Some knowledgeable people have many questions of, viz that common knowledge (1) a US $ 20 million loan was requested on 21 Dec 89 by Global Marketing and was sanctioned (without collateral) at the speed of light by telex on 31 Dec 89 by the Ministry of Finance (2) Habib Bank suffered an unexplained write-off of Rs 31.10 million in the case of purchase of Hayat Plaza and over Rs 10 million for the Al-Feroz Building (3) Rs 10 million was moved in cash (two cheques of Rs 5.00 million each) from Habib Bank, Shaheed-i-Millat Road Branch, Karachi in February 1970 with an escort provided by the Sindh Police (4) the income tax authorities remained blissfully unaware of Kazmi’s source of wealth (5) how permission for investment was given to foreign individuals without any application to the Investment Promotion Bureau and (6) on what authority did Happy Minwala give a letter on official GoP stationery to Kazmi to negotiate a loan of US$ 1 billion, which Kazmi did, with the Vatician, on the proviso that the money would be moved through a “private trust”. The smart money is betting that the “earnest” officials of the Sindh Police, having been well “looked after” may well want to spoil the case for the prosecution by not revealing these details.
The enquiries must be entrusted to a completely new Agency organised on the pattern of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), persons with known and unchallengeable integrity staffing the hard core, from volunteers selected from the existing civil service cadres including police, accounts, income taxes, etc, military and/or from the general public. It is futile to expect Inspector “Nathu Khan” of the Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) to extract confessions, even if he had the motivation or intent, about sleight-of-hand accounting practices, Al Capone (of Prohibition era Chicago-fame) was not brought to book on charges of kidnapping, murder and extortion, which was common knowledge but could not be proven because of “lack” of witnesses, he was finally convicted on income tax evasion. Inspector “Nathu Khan” or his superiors can hardly be expected to have the knowledge of a Chartered Accountant, their chartering of accounts extends only to lining their own pockets. For the present, special teams with adequate knowledge about commercial practices may be constituted, after a quick but thorough check of their credentials, later expanding it into a more permanent institution under the Federal Ombudsman. The accountability process may otherwise be hopelessly compromised. When criminals function in the name of justice, justice becomes a crime.
Those who have looted the public till are really “Untouchables”. For the sake of the continuation of the democratic process, the elected representatives must correct the system, martial law regimes function in the name of accountability, seldom conduct self-accountability, too many rich and landed retired generals, admirals and air marshals are in existence to deny this point. The “Untouchables” have corrupted the system, if it is further compromised we are in real trouble, both if the perpetrators of frauds and scams should come into power and/or if the Armed Forces decide that they need to become the arbiters of the nation’s destiny because of the dereliction of duty by compromised individuals, a real-life Catch-22. The vested interest of the Caretaker Government lies in ensuring a fair process of accountability, one that should become a salutary deterrent for future misconduct but should not be denigrated by motivated witch-hunting. The trend of accountability should be honest dealing, otherwise we will deprive the witches from the broomsticks needed to send them permanently to the moon.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment