PROPOSALS TO MAKE PAKISTAN A CORRUPTION-FREE SOCIETY

This piece was presented to National Accountability Bureau's Essay Competition and it got 3rd prize.

 

  

Pakistan is a country that has immense potential and all the ingredients to line itself among the developed nations on this earth. Loaded with vast resources of minerals, one of the best manpower in the world, exemplary irrigation system and huge amount of agricultural land, it becomes difficult for one to understand that why Pakistan isn’t able to expose itself in front of this world as a developed and prosperous nation.

Many say that Pakistan’s geopolitical location isn’t letting it develop and many call corruption as the root cause of our ills. Whatever the reason may be but there is something which needs to be appreciated that Pakistan has got all that makes a nation halcyon.

Corruption has long been attributed with Pakistani system. It has been one of the greatest hurdle that has put a lot of dents on Pakistan. We are not being able to meet our daily government expenditures due to that very corruption and hence we take initiatives like getting loans from international financial institutions and other world powers who in return demand concessions which are sometimes detrimental to Pakistan’s sovereignty and its people.

Putting an end to this corruption is a daunting task faced by Pakistani people. Much of our potential and finance goes to the pockets of our corrupt rulers and people in civil service. There is a dire need to investigate the causes and the measures to be taken to stem this ill out of our society. All we need to do is to first point out the loopholes in our system and then apply the patches to resolve this ailment.

The dilemma of corruption in Pakistan is that it can be found on every level from civil bureaucracy to military offices, from higher officials to lower staff and from general public dealing to private sector. We have to act fast on all these fronts to save this nation from going into misery. Some of the proposals to make Pakistan corruption-free are entailed below:

CIVIL BUREAUCRACY:

Civil bureaucracy is a very important element of government functioning. In fact it provides the necessary advice that is required to function effectively. Being the guardian of national exchequer, civil bureaucracy has all the required funds at their disposal to use and that makes them vulnerable to fall into corruption. Every federal ministry / division, at the start of new financial year submits its financial projections and demands for their expenses to be incurred in the coming year and they get the money against their projections. This allocation to them, which is on the basis of their projections, strictly needs to be watched either by Finance Division, NAB or FIA. Any agency or ministry failing to utilize their funds properly should be charged and held accountable.

PUBLIC DEALING GOVERNMENT OFFICES:

We have offices and divisions which communicate and serve directly with the general masses for example for the issuance of traffic licenses, armor licenses, affidavit issuers and many other functions which involve public dealing are plagued with corruption. The officials working in these areas have the power to stop or accelerate the work of a citizen and in return citizens use money to get their work done efficiently.

It is proposed that in these types of offices, stringent timeline rules regarding issuance of necessary licenses and other documents should be practiced to stop the official from stopping or decelerate the work like it is done in NADRA, where there is a set time frame for issuance of NICs. Anyone who wants to get his work done urgently can always have the option of getting it on urgent basis by paying additional fees. If this system is installed in all the public dealing offices, then the ratio of bribery in our society will decrease manifold.

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES:

Law enforcement agencies, having the mandate to maintain law and order in the country, have the power to settle issues among people and charge anyone found guilty. According to international reports, Police is a department which is the most corrupt in our society. There should be a proper training program for our police officials and workshops may also be arranged by NAB to de-motivate the officials involved in that practice. They should also be given a pay raise to meet their day to day needs efficiently.

TRAININGS AND WORKSHOPS:

To get every job, there are requirements which one should fulfil in order to be able to qualify for it. A criteria must be set that people who are planning to enter into offices which are prone to corruption, must first undertake crash programs and workshops of Anti-Corruption (which can be held by either NAB or FIA) to give the officials proper education regarding this ill.

Pakistan is a country that got all what it takes to be the best. Only need is to streamline our direction and find the panacea of our ills. We have experienced in one of our government agency i.e. Motorway Police, where necessary measures like pay raises, proper education and performance based incentives were given and the result we got is a department which is almost free of corruption and ultimately it led to society being washed away from corruption. Corruption is a huge problem and harsh measures are required to curb it but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to curb it. We can follow the Motorway Police model to eliminate this corruption which is killing Pakistan from its very roots.

The Land of the Pure

Pakistan, a state situated in the most important strategic location on the map of the world, has its every citizen carrying a burden of Rs. 57,000 debt on his head. This land of the pure, besides being pure, is a tale full of corruption, bad-governance and mismanagement, puppet leaders, coups sponsored by foreign powers and above all youth without a vision.

I am among those more than 50% of people of Pakistan aged between 15-25 years, who have the immense responsibility of carrying this nation towards some sunshine. Working in Planning Commission of Pakistan, Government Office, as a support staff, I've witnessed so much in these three years of my tenure.

When I joined government service three years back, like every other member of this youth, I decided to never indulge myself into any malpractices and always stick to my principles of honesty. I received two offers of bribe in the initial first year of my tenure and thankfully I was able to ward off all those offers.

Time has passed and now I have become accustomed myself to the working of the government system. All my zeal and passion to play an honest role in the development of Pakistan, in any capacity I can, is lost. I feel that there is no difference between me and a fifty five year sitting in the office just to enjoy the perks and reputation that comes along with the package of government officer. These government officers, who fear so much for their job that they are ready to put their integrity at and honesty at stake just to please their seniors, though there are exceptions. Two years on, I feel dejected. I feel guilty as I've been an indirect part of wrong-doings and corruption. I am a part of that very system.

We see corruption, both moral and financial around us. Be it a government employee who files a wrong late sitting claim or a Government Official who take kick backs in different projects financed either by taxpayer's money or from foreign aid. I say it with sheer grief that corruption is deep inside our pants and we have to realize this. The most dangerous part of it is when the youth, expected to bring about a change in this country, is also falling into the category of corruption.

Reviewing myself, I see a person, who once set out to become a part in making this land of the pure progressive, is now swayed into what has always been done and someone who is always in support of the status quo. I have lost the cause and I see the same with some of the other youth we have around. To ask someone to behave, first we must behave the same way and my confession is just a part to motivate the youth. But we have to stand in front of the mirror and ask ourselves, what is the objective of this 5 feet 10 inch flesh on this earth? Surely we are not here to talk about the hottest girl in the town or university or talking about Big Boss. We are made for something big.

Glancing at the problems we face and the daunting task to make amends of the mistakes committed by our ancestors, we have to make sure that we as a youth don?t let ourselves to distract us from our objective. We face the fact that we inherited darkness in the form of load-shedding, our precious energy resources handed over to foreign companies and our land and military being used to fight the war of someone else.

The problems are massive and so is the responsibility on the shoulders of youth. When we say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, then we also have to realize that it is the youth that has to be the medium to help this nation to reach the light at the other end of the tunnel. Night is always the darkest before dawn and the sunlight of this dawn can only be lit by the efforts of this talented youth which includes people like Ali Moeen Nawazish and Naveed Asif and many other success stories.

We as a youth, forget that it is ONLY AND ONLY US who can do something and if we get lethargic and let our desires overcome our objectives then there are serious problems for us. When I confess my laziness and becoming a part of the same bureaucracy, I feel gutted because we are the only hope of this Ummah and frankly speaking, if we turned an eye on our people then more misery is awaiting us. These multinational corporations and colonial system are waiting with their open jaws with sharp teeth to swallow us. The youth has to understand the role as the savior of this Ummah. We are the ones who can make the difference. People chanting slogans at Tahrir Square are from the youth who like to interact on facebook and twitter. It is high time for us to stand up and be counted. The youth residing in the land of the pure! Either we make history or we become history.