A new Transparency International (TI) report titled Fighting corruption in South Asia: Building accountability has termed South Asia the world’s worst region in terms of corruption, based on its analysis of anti-corruption efforts of nearly 70 institutions across the six South Asian countries. The TI’s report has identified three important areas to effectively overcome corruption within Pakistan in particular with its focus on the role of the judiciary, the need for better anti-corruption measures and greater freedom of information.
While the judiciary in Pakistan has historically been subjected to nepotism, political patronage and favouritism, TI notes how judicial activism and constitutional changes in 2010 created an independent and proactive judicial commission. In turn, the courts have taken up thousands of human rights cases and also declared the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance unconstitutional for its attempt to grant amnesty to allegedly corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Simultaneously, TI also points out concerns about the Supreme Court having become a bit too proactive, advising it to strike a better balance between oversight and its own institutional accountability.
TI also acknowledged the role of Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which, despite attempts at political sabotage, has had many accomplishments, including exposition of the Double Shah Scam in 2007, one of the largest financial frauds in the country’s history. However, the introduction of the National Accountability Commission Bill in the National Assembly attempting to replace NAB with a new commission that has limited scope and jurisdiction is considered a matter of concern, which could undermine efforts to ensure accountability of those in power.
While Pakistan is recognised as the first South Asian country to introduce a right to information law, this law is considered weak and lacking an effective implementation mechanism, compared to neighbouring countries like India and Bangladesh. TI appreciates recent provincial information acts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, but it stresses the need for providing greater protection for ‘whistleblowers’ to disclose misdeeds from within. TI also rightly criticises the top-down manner in which legislation is developed and advises our government to do more to raise awareness among citizens of their fundamental right to information.
Despite providing useful suggestions concerning all three institutions which TI identifies has having the potential to make a country like Pakistan more accountable, the scope of the TI’s assessment remains rather myopic.
Entities like TI need to adopt a wider framework concerning underlying reasons for corruption in developing countries. Instead of only blaming national policymakers and institutions within the country, the role of international actors in exacerbating different forms of corrupt or unethical practices, should also have been acknowledged.
In stressing the need for information, for example, TI should have insisted that adequate information should also be provided concerning privatisation deals and foreign land grabs, which are often rushed through with the blessing of international agencies like the IMF and the World Bank in the attempt to secure foreign direct investment. The judiciary and NAB should also have been advised to play a greater role in ensuring that foreign companies abide by the same labour standards within Pakistan as they do within their home countries and do not exert other forms of undue influence over policymaking to maximise corporate profits.
A broader and more inclusive understanding of what corruption means would lend more credibility to the work of international organisations like TI for ensuring greater transparency across the developing world.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2014.
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