CORRUPTION IN PAKISTAN.

To be in harmony with a nefarious and unscrupulous system: this is not a plausible

desideratum. It can be achieved only through disavowal of what surrounds us.
Sadly, we are in complete harmony with our surroundings and denial has become
the most abundant renewable resource in our country. Denial of corruption being a
nom rather than exception and the impunity of ruling elites from all sorts of
accountability. Whatever could be legally gotten away with, is being tolerated
through a passionate spinning of erroneous narrative, blaming someone for
something and then everyone for everything. Repudiating our own contribution and
moral inconsistencies, we are in a cognitive dissonance between political idealism
and hard wired evolutionary psychology that sways man's mind to be awed by the
rich and powerful. We are overwhelmed with a presumptuous desire for being like
them. Consequently we follow their footsteps.
We lie, cheat, intimidate and exploit others for personal gains. Those with particular
advantages such as contacts and political connections are able to move more
effectively within the system, trampling everyone else in their pursuit of happiness.
Honesty and integrity are gone extinct. Morality requires authentication from some
sort of superior authority. Ignorance gets celebrated and honored. As a result, we
have insane idiots talking for us, while stealing everything from us. We are being
lied to, cheated and intimidated. The three branches of control which includes
government, establishment and bureaucracy. We are told that we are directing this
insane three ring circus, an illusion that keeps us voting for a change that never
comes. Voting simply placates, pacifies and preserves the illusion of choice, while
transferring the guilt and responsibility onto the people. Until the reality impacts us
to a point of extreme discomfort, we defend our fantasy of a benevolent
government, run by altruistic public servants and true representatives of people.
It is the paradoxical nature of our co-creative reality consensus, which makes it
nearly impossible to discuss the current conditions we're existing within, without
sounding insane, to the majority of dumbed down and trance induced people, who
aren't firing on all cylinders. The fact is, that we never had the choice to decide who
will run the system and how. Initially it was British trained bureaucracy then
dictatorship and eventually a civilian, chosen and promoted by the dictator. People
were given the right to choose for the first time in 1970 and the results created
serious problems. Out of 320 seats, 160 were won by a party belonging to East
Pakistan, but the government was formed by a party winning 80 seats in West
Pakistan. And then we blame external interference for 1971 incident. The only
lesson learned by the powers behind the scene was, that people should not be
allowed to choose, rather given an illusion of choice.
In retrospect, Pakistan has always been the case of elite adjustment and plutocracy.
One administration got replaced by the other, while plunderers and blunderers
came out with clean chit every time. Politicians and dictators have always been
each others creation. Ayub Khan created Bhutto who then created Zia Ul Haq. Zia
created Sharif brothers who in turn created Pervez Musharraf, who then created
Chaudharys of Gujrat and few others. Creations had their differences with creators,

but things remained strictly within the closed loop, revolving door politics of too
much blame but no accountability. Everyone having dirty hands is ostensibly the
reason. The ruling class, particularly the military and civil bureaucracy has no
religion, caste, ethnicity or tribe, instead they have vested Interests that promotes
the unsustainable plundering of social surplus.
This process of theft is unsustainable and it has severely limited qualitative
development in exploited masses. A reality often disavowed, as we are in a
comfortable complacency and not willing to face it. But the fact remains that we,
have adapted to this unscrupulous paradigm, instead of resisting it. The latest
report by Transparency International ranked Pakistan among the top most countries
where corruption has gone rampant. We are moving on a path towards selfimmolation without even realizing it, and will find ourselves in the dustbin of history
in less than a century.
The question is, are we really aware of whats actually going on in the
country? How the oligarchs, schooled in the mechanisms of manipulation, subtle
and overt repression and exploitation to protect their wealth and power at the
expense of common man, are suppressing the qualitative development in exploited
masses? Lets have a look;
Professor Anatol Lieven of King's College in his book Pakistan: A Hard Country
quoted Dr. Mahbub ul-Haq (the renowned Pakistani economist who is credited with
the idea of UNDP's human development index HDI); "every time a new political
government comes in, they have to distribute huge amounts of state money and
jobs as rewards to politicians who have supported them, and short term populist
measures to try to convince the people that their election promises meant
something, which leaves nothing for long-term development. As far as development
is concerned, our system has all the worst features of oligarchy and democracy put
together.
Dr. Mahbub also said; we have not been able to deregulate the economy, despite

several years of trying, because the politicians and officials both like the system,
Bhutto put in place. It suits them both very well, because it gave them lots of
lucrative state-sponsored jobs in industry and banking to take for themselves or
distribute to their relatives and supporters."
Individuals belonging to the exclusive elite club, obtain loans to set up businesses
and have their loans written off to get more. Loans waived off in Pakistan are
far greater than anywhere else in the world. For the first time in history of
Pakistan, a major crackdown was launched against the loan defaulters in November
1999 and government estimated the default amount at around PKR. 146 Billion.
According to the figures provided by Governor SBP, Mukhtar Nabi Qureshi, 325
defaulters owe more than PKR. 100 million each amounting to PKR. 72 billion. About
590 legislators were defaulters of PKR. 9.64 billion, mostly of Agricultural
Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP). National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was
entrusted to recover the loans from the defaulters but only 3% of the default
amount was recovered during the campaign. Remaining 97% left unrecovered due
to compromises, nepotism, deals and negotiations.

Lt Gen Shahid Aziz, a former Chairman NAB, while speaking to news media
(referring to 6th & 8th Dec 2009) after expiry of two year's mandatory period that
prevented him to discuss service matters, said; I was appointed as the NAB
chairman with a pre-condition that I would not open old cases against politicians
and other prominent people and was pressurized into formally closing down cases
against politicians supporting Gen Musharraf. I was told repeatedly not to create
problems and not to destabilize the government, otherwise the system would
collapse. They (the president and his team) gave a strange logic that corruption and
economic development goes hand in hand. He quoted Lt Gen Khalid Maqbool, a
former NAB Chairman, as saying while trying to convince him that: "If you stop
corruption, there will be no development. If ministers and politicians are not given
personal benefits in contracts, why would they pursue development schemes? They
have to be given personal incentives such as awarding contracts to their sons and
kinship." Try to read the mindset of Oligarchy.
Ten years later, the loan defaulter's list was placed before the Supreme Court but
deferred because Shareef family was also among the defaulters and CJP Iftikhar
Chaudhary, being the part of their feudal legion, had to protect them. Instead of
taking action, he ordered constituting a commission for loan recovery. Till today, not
a single loan has been recovered, not a single property confiscated and not a single
man is jailed or convicted. In Pakistan it is very old and tested technique that if the
government or the court wants to thin out some issue or to detract people's
attention, or to make the fools forget corruption; make out a commission or
committee. The poor people having short memory will forget everything including
the fact that Pakistan owes approximately $ 65 billion to IMF, its people owe $ 75
billion as internal debt and the current government has signed another $ 35 billion
as external debt from China. They will not even remember that London financial
market indicators have already contemplated a default-like scenario for Pakistan
recently.
It is an open secret that over the past few decades, Pakistan's ruling elite has
transferred huge amounts of money to Swiss and other banks. This money,
generated through illegal activities by rapacious politicians, avaricious bureaucrats,
terrorist and drug-for-arms networks and greedy businessmen, was never declared
for tax purposes. Pakistan's black economy is said to be three times its regular
economy. In 1996, a lawyer Javed Iqbal Jafree filed a petition against political
leaders holding assets abroad and requested the court to issue notices named in
the petition. The petitioner alleged that the respondent politicians transferred at
least 300 billion US dollars to foreign countries through money laundering. He said
by doing this the politicians caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.
Subsequently, court notices were issued but for lack of any follow-up measures, the
case has remained pending.
On October 1, 2010, the Swiss Parliament passed the historic "Return of Illicit Assets
Act" (RIAA) to make it possible for developing countries to recover billions of dollars
shifted to Swiss banks by their unscrupulous ruling elites. In October 2011, then
Senator Muhammad Ali Durrani filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court for the
recovery of about "500 billion dollars looted from Pakistan and kept abroad in

unnamed bank accounts in the West and also in the shape of unnamed properties
operated through agents and the front-men for the corrupt Pakistani politicians, civil
and military bureaucrats and businessmen. Once again no serious action taken by
courts and no serious attempts have been ever made by the NAB, FBR, FIA, AntiNarcotics Force and other government agencies to conduct an in-depth study to
quantify the magnitude of black money and the amounts shifted abroad.
It is to be noted that Pakistan is a resource rich country and its natural resources
including Gold, Copper and Concrete at Riko Diq alone are estimated at a value of
around $300 billion. Who is extracting these resources and who is benefiting
from the deals? BHP Billiton initially signed the exploration license with the
Balochistan government in 1993, forming Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) later in
Australia, having 75 per cent and 25 per cent stake respectively. With gold and
copper established in substantial quantity, BHP sold its stake, 37.5 per cent each to
the Chilean conglomerate, Antofagasta Minerals and Canadian company Barrick
Gold. Why the agreement was signed so secretly and not debated with people? Who
gave the waiver to BHP Billiton to transfer its 75 per cent share in the TCC? Was the
agreement in accordance to the local laws? Apparently not, because when PPP
government was trying to renew the agreement with TCC, a three-judge bench of
Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry gave its
ruling that the agreement of July 1993 was in conflict with the laws of the country.
TCC then filed compensatory claims in the international arbitration court.
Interestingly, soon after the change of government, Iftikhar Chaudhary got his son
Arsalan Chaudhary, appointed as vice-chairman of the Balochistan Investment
Board and this appointment was Reko Diq-specific. Spokesperson of PML(N)
Mushahidullah Khan defended this appointment, stating it as a reward for Iftikhar
Chaudhrys services to the nation. Services to the nation or services for Sharif
Family? Arsalan Iftikhar later announced an open global tender for Riko Diq,
attracting widespread criticism, and was forced to resign. Meanwhile Arsalan also
got involved in a scandal with Malik Riaz and both parties were found guilty of
massive tax evasion. Surprisingly no action was taken against either of the two.
Malik Riaz Hussain, a former military contractor, turned billionaire within a short
span, has been involved in quite a few controversies. A former Chairman NAB in his
interview to Dawn on 8th Dec 2009 pointed out that once Gen Musharraf personally
called him and said; drop the name of Malik Riaz Hussain from the exit control list.
As President of Pakistan, I give my personal guarantee that he would not run away.
Isn't a personal guarantee of the President of Pakistan sufficient to satisfy you?
Malik Riaz was one of prime accused in a multi-million-forest land scam and his
name was subsequently removed from ECL. Ironically, the jails of our country are
filled with petty thieves and poor people under long pre-trial detentions, while the
robber barons are getting saluted and honored for their atrocities and malfeasance.
Currently, the PML (N) Government is trying to get an out-of-court settlement with
TCC on Riko Diq, in an attempt to plunder whatever they can, just like its
predecessor, the PPP government. As usual the oligarchs are doing their dirty work,
all in the name of people, while people are being kept occupied with the dominant

myths like Indian threat, Kashmirs liberation, Islamization vs secularization, war

against terrorism and democracy vs dictatorship.
The three ring circus has always been backed by various elite groups. Whether it
was the stock market barons minting money from an artificially stable economy and
a fictitious boom during Musharrafs regime, whether it was real estate barons and
commodity speculators making fortunes during Zardaris era, all followed the same
pattern of defending each others plunders and blunders. The current regime of PML
(N) is on its way to break all the previous records of corruption. What trickles down
is being grabbed by the opportunists such as political activists, bureaucrats,
contractors, media anchors, journalists, members of academia and civil society,
lawyers and businessmen, leaving 99 percent of the population deprived, clueless
and completely out of the picture.
A question that is never asked. What are we paying them for?
As Lawrence Ferlinghetti said; Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to
praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero pity the people who allow their
rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away.