The Genesis of Corruption
Corruption was alive and well when Pakistan was created in 1947 but it has been very much in fashion in South Asia (and the rest of the world) for centuries. However, many areas of our society had remained relatively safe from its ugly tentacles. Unfortunately the many opportunities created by the inception of the new State and the early loss of credible leaders like the Quaid and Liaquat Ali Khan Shaheed allowed corruption to gradually permeate through and subvert the whole spectrum of society. By 1958 the civilian government had become a full partner to those engaged in corruption. The first martial law tried to stamp out this corruption, the style may be different in this military regime, the substance of primary raison d’etre for clamping authoritarian rule in place of a democracy remains the same. The first martial law did not have as difficult a time as the present military rulers are having four decades later, corruption is now deeply imbedded in the psyche of the entire country, almost without exception. Forty years ago people using foul means gave bribes to overcome their competition, today almost everyone, even those using fair means, must give bribes to get things done.
The fruits of corruption can now be spirited away abroad much more easily than in the olden days when it was invested in property or kept buried in dark places, that has acted as a “force-multiplier” for the proliferation of corruption. Uptil 1857, the British bribed their way into power across South Asia by seducing recalcitrants among the close relatives/associates of various rulers. After 1857, they created a new “loyal” elite by distributing vast tracts of land that became theirs by default of having defeated the vestiges of the old Mughal Empire. This newly-landed gentry owed their loyalty to the British Raj, who in turn promoted their new proteges into aping their customs and traditions. As the tracts of land became smaller and the urban population became larger, smaller units of land i.e. residential and commercial plots, were used by the rulers as weapons of bribe for their own continued rule. The political governments perfected this “art”. In Pakistan the first great exercise of this was in Karachi when the Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society (PECHS) came into being, residential plots were allotted to bureaucrats and then re-sold on the commercial market at astronomical prices, giving windfall instant riches to the “lucky” bureaucrats. Commercial areas such as I. I. Chundrigar Road, etc had already been carved up among the relatives and friends of those who succeeded Liaquat Ali Khan Shaheed. Earlier they were responsible for the “permit” windfall, sanctions for various “commodities”, “industries”, etc that were given to favourites and sold for a premium. A Gulberg appeared in Lahore and a Satellite Town in Rawalpindi, fore-runners to a whole host of such residential societies, formed mainly on black money. Real estate became a haven for illegal wealth. When the more organized Pakistan Defence Officers Cooperative Housing Society (now Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Karachi came into being, money started flowing in from the very rich for purchase of land at comparatively cheaper prices from the military beneficiaries of allotted residential and commercial plots. It was only later that the men in uniform discovered that they could sell the real estate at higher commercial prices to supplement their meagre incomes, mainly to purchase cars and household electrical/electronic goods. Major corruption took hold in society across the broad spectrum of the body politic involving politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, armed forces personnel, etc. Kickbacks started to proliferate in every procurement contract, every construction contract, every service contract, etc. Of the assessed taxes only 10-15% went to the government, if any, at least 25-30% went to the tax collectors, balance was pocketed by the unscrupulous. The situation now is that we recover only 30% of the taxes that are liable. This has put an enormous economic burden on the State, we are always depending upon loans from abroad to shore up our Budget. We may have even reached a stage of country debt default. With nationalization in 1973, corruption force-multiplied, remaining manageable under political control till 1977. However, things went berserk under absolute bureaucratic rule during the third martial law 1977-1985. By the time the political government of sorts came back to power in 1985, corruption was endemic across the board, during the Bhutto/Sharif/Bhutto/Sharif 1988-1999 political period, it crossed all bounds. Bankers also got into the act, showing means and methods to politicians how to become “instant” businessmen by taking loans from the financial institutions without collateral and without any intention of returning the loans. The word “loan default” came into the Pakistan lexicon. By the 80s a few people in the Armed Forces fell prey to their retired colleagues’ machinations and were rumoured to have taken kickbacks in defence procurement deals. These contracts were large but the uniformed people involved were only a handful. By the 90s, influence and contracts ran Pakistan through a network of nepotism and corruption. When Gen Pervez Musharraf took over, the situation was horrific. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was a last-chance solution waiting to happen, something that Pakistan desperately needed to ward off threats to its very existence as a nation.
