Corruption’s Many Faces
English Essay on "Corruption’s Many Faces" - Compositions on "Corruption’s Many Faces"
Is corruption only financial or monetary? One may say there is no end to it but where and how does it begin? Is it corruption to move away or violate the universally accepted principles or norms? What sort of image the great Satan conjures up in our minds? Do we consider him the arch-corrupter of people’s hearts, injecting into them temptations for success, gold arid glory. Does the cause justify dubious means? If power corrupts how long can the all-powerful people resist deviating from the straight path? These are not just esoteric notions. They constitute real questions relevant to our situation and our conditions. Take the present “political” order. Nobody denies General Musharrafs qualities of head and heart. He demonstrated these, to the hilt, at Kargil and in the cockpit. He has sought to cleanse the body politic and he says that he is proud of giving the country a clean government. Many may dispute it but if
Transparency International is to be believed a certain kind of corruption in Pakistan has certainly decreased. Part of the reason for it may he the handpicked ministers and the fear of the NAB. The test of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating of it. What kind of taste did the referendum leave on the tongues? Every body, including the head of the state, admits it was not clean. The foreign press called it “rigged” and “fraudulent”. Little notice was taken of this characterization by the government. Later it was sought to be explained away as the misguided act of some “idiots”. Still Later it was acknowledged to be something wrong and regrettable.
Instead of adding to the ruler’s strength, the exercise diminished it. The really tragic part of it was the orientation provided to the custodians of the new system at the level of the district and below. The orientation was based on the proposition that government resources can be used for “political” purposes with impunity. educationsight.blogspot.com What kind of administration at the local level will now emerge? Will any Nazim or Naib Nazim ever hesitate to use funds, his subordinates, other resources and his clout, for the furtherance of his own ends — good or bad? If he could do it for others why not for himself or herself? So the referendum was not merely a blip on the political screen or just an episode. It was a deliberate act of commission pregnant with potentially enormously unsavory and unwholesome consequences for not only the new system of the Nazim but also for the poor people of Pakistan.
A word in passing about this system in the name of the idea of “power to the people”, the Nazims, expected to be heading the third tier and autonomous in discharging their functions, have virtually become the obedient servants of the provincial government. Frequently summoned by government officials they are given instructions and directives of all kinds. Officers working under them are transferred fairly frequently without their knowledge and consent. The most powerful official in the district is only partially under the Nazims control.
His real boss sits at the divisional or zonal headquarters. Recently it was not the elected naib nazim who took over as the acting nazim when the district nazim resigned but a senior official. Doesn’t this degrade the spirit of the new people’s government and the slogan ‘power to the people’, trumpeted so much as the new grassroots democracy? The system has some other inbuilt flaws. Where do people go if a Nazim indulges in wrongdoing and keeps the “whips” in the toothless district council happy? Will they, say from far-flung Bahawainagar come all the way to a generally inaccessible administration at the provincial capital, as except for the DIG hardly any authority exists in-between? How does a nazim attend to his duties properly if the chief minister of the province happens to belong to a political party opposed to the nazim’s and who will check the corrupt use of fds by naib nazims, tehsil nazims, town 1 nazims and the district councilors who want to be paid salaries and lump sum funds for discretionary use?
Did the government at the top learn any lessons from the unfortunate and questionable referendum? Since the referendum was conducted under the auspices of the Chief Election Commissioner, was he called upon to explain his conduct in view of the widespread reports of rigging (and stuffing of ballot papers in the boxes)? Why was this not done? Should he, as an honourable man, continue to hold his high office? How does he feel when his orders regarding the stoppage of transfer of officials are thus regarded by provincial governments Does he derive judicial satisfaction when he persuades himself to compromise his position by accepting the plea that transfers (which still continue) are done in “public interest”? Which public interest Mr Justice (r) Irshad-ul-Hasan? Do you really believe that your recent directive to police and other officials not to misuse their influence for political purpose will even be partially followed? How aware are you of the non-stop, loudly aired complaints of most of the political parties that blatant pre-poll rigging is going on and certain parties are being favoured by the administration?
These lines are being written to help government stop the distortions creeping into the electoral process, to put an end to practices which even remotely smack of governments involvement (pre-poll rigging) in this process and without delay replace the present incumbent of the crucial office of CEC, whose writ hardly runs and whose credibility was severely eroded by the tragic referendum. This the government may well do this in its own larger interest and very much in the interest of this benighted Land of ours. It is late but better late than never. Corruption is not just financial. And having a hand picked team of officials at the top, kept on leash and on track, for fear of dismissal or the Nab-grab, is not enough. Integrity demands a mindset which expresses itself at all levels and all situations and refuses to use dubious means for worthy ends.
Instead of adding to the ruler’s strength, the exercise diminished it. The really tragic part of it was the orientation provided to the custodians of the new system at the level of the district and below. The orientation was based on the proposition that government resources can be used for “political” purposes with impunity. educationsight.blogspot.com What kind of administration at the local level will now emerge? Will any Nazim or Naib Nazim ever hesitate to use funds, his subordinates, other resources and his clout, for the furtherance of his own ends — good or bad? If he could do it for others why not for himself or herself? So the referendum was not merely a blip on the political screen or just an episode. It was a deliberate act of commission pregnant with potentially enormously unsavory and unwholesome consequences for not only the new system of the Nazim but also for the poor people of Pakistan.
A word in passing about this system in the name of the idea of “power to the people”, the Nazims, expected to be heading the third tier and autonomous in discharging their functions, have virtually become the obedient servants of the provincial government. Frequently summoned by government officials they are given instructions and directives of all kinds. Officers working under them are transferred fairly frequently without their knowledge and consent. The most powerful official in the district is only partially under the Nazims control.
His real boss sits at the divisional or zonal headquarters. Recently it was not the elected naib nazim who took over as the acting nazim when the district nazim resigned but a senior official. Doesn’t this degrade the spirit of the new people’s government and the slogan ‘power to the people’, trumpeted so much as the new grassroots democracy? The system has some other inbuilt flaws. Where do people go if a Nazim indulges in wrongdoing and keeps the “whips” in the toothless district council happy? Will they, say from far-flung Bahawainagar come all the way to a generally inaccessible administration at the provincial capital, as except for the DIG hardly any authority exists in-between? How does a nazim attend to his duties properly if the chief minister of the province happens to belong to a political party opposed to the nazim’s and who will check the corrupt use of fds by naib nazims, tehsil nazims, town 1 nazims and the district councilors who want to be paid salaries and lump sum funds for discretionary use?
Did the government at the top learn any lessons from the unfortunate and questionable referendum? Since the referendum was conducted under the auspices of the Chief Election Commissioner, was he called upon to explain his conduct in view of the widespread reports of rigging (and stuffing of ballot papers in the boxes)? Why was this not done? Should he, as an honourable man, continue to hold his high office? How does he feel when his orders regarding the stoppage of transfer of officials are thus regarded by provincial governments Does he derive judicial satisfaction when he persuades himself to compromise his position by accepting the plea that transfers (which still continue) are done in “public interest”? Which public interest Mr Justice (r) Irshad-ul-Hasan? Do you really believe that your recent directive to police and other officials not to misuse their influence for political purpose will even be partially followed? How aware are you of the non-stop, loudly aired complaints of most of the political parties that blatant pre-poll rigging is going on and certain parties are being favoured by the administration?
These lines are being written to help government stop the distortions creeping into the electoral process, to put an end to practices which even remotely smack of governments involvement (pre-poll rigging) in this process and without delay replace the present incumbent of the crucial office of CEC, whose writ hardly runs and whose credibility was severely eroded by the tragic referendum. This the government may well do this in its own larger interest and very much in the interest of this benighted Land of ours. It is late but better late than never. Corruption is not just financial. And having a hand picked team of officials at the top, kept on leash and on track, for fear of dismissal or the Nab-grab, is not enough. Integrity demands a mindset which expresses itself at all levels and all situations and refuses to use dubious means for worthy ends.
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