Tales of corruption

These are interesting times; tales of corruption and the talk of accountability are being heard in all four provinces. Making the ruling parties accountable is a popular demand in Pakistan, but accountability is often made hostage to political expediency.
No political party or individual is opposed to accountability – but they want others to be made accountable. Any politician caught on corruption charges loses no time to depict it as political victimisation. Still many of those nabbed accept their guilt by voluntarily returning the embezzled money or entering into a plea bargain with the accountability bodies.
Something being keenly watched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa nowadays is the way former minister Ziaullah Afridi is striking back following his arrest by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on July 9 on corruption charges. After spending some tough time in a detention cell, he managed to get himself shifted to a hospital due to illness and then won enough support from opposition lawmakers to be allowed to attend the provincial assembly session on September 10. He used the occasion to level serious allegations against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and also criticise Speaker Asad Qaiser and IGP Nasir Khan Durrani.
The KP cabinet, or to be specific the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ministers in it, sprang to the defence of the chief minister. However, one must ask: is it enough for the chief executive of the province to clear his name through a mere statement of solidarity made by his ministers? It certainly isn’t.
Pervez Khattak should personally answer each and every allegation made against him by his own minister and party colleague. Ziaullah Afridi was considered close to the chief minister as he was not only minister for mineral development, but also the focal person for the mega project to develop and beautify Peshawar. Many considered him an insider with access to classified information. He had been threatening to disclose secrets to avenge his humiliation as he believed the chief minister had a hand in his arrest. All this is embarrassing for the PTI, a party already suffering from indiscipline in its ranks.
The obsession to highlight and fight corruption isn’t confined to KP, though there are four institutions in this province doing this job compared to three in the other three provinces. In KP we have the National Accountability Bureau, the Anti-Corruption Establishment, the FIA and also the Ehtesab Commission. The last-named is a creation of the PTI government in KP.
In Punjab, the Nandipur Power Plant has been the subject of discussion after its failure to produce the promised electricity, with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif defending his government due to the huge escalation in the cost of the 425 megawatt project. The chief minister has also been demanding accountability of those responsible for the unprecedented rise in the project’s cost from Rs14 billion to Rs84 billion during the PPP rule.
Sindh is a different story altogether as the ruling PPP is confronted with one case after another of misuse of power and corruption by its leaders, including ministers. A few have been netted, some have escaped abroad and others are hoping they won’t be dragged to prisons and accountability courts.
The MQM too is on the defensive as new evidence is forever emerging about involvement of its workers in criminal activities. Some of its former federal and provincial ministers could also face corruption charges if the party leadership dares to defy the powerful state institutions, which seem to have finally decided to conduct across-the-board accountability.
A number of former Balochistan ministers and civil servants are being investigated for their involvement in corruption and some could face arrest and even conviction. Leading the pack is former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, who must have set a record of incompetence when he ruled the province from 2008-2013. However, his term coincided with the PPP rule in the country under the benign leadership of former president Asif Ali Zardari when making money by hook or by crook became the norm rather than the exception.
Khyber Pakhtunkwa has been attracting greater attention since the May 2013 general elections because it is ruled by Imran Khan’s PTI along with two smaller political parties, Jamaat-e-Islami and AJIP. Imran Khan’s promises of justice and fair play, together with upholding of merit and zero tolerance for corruption, are the benchmarks by which the PTI government is being judged. It will be right to say that this government is better than the previous ANP-PPP coalition government in terms of its tough handling of corruption issues, but it has yet to attain the standard that was expected of the PTI and Imran Khan.
Ziaullah Afridi has been accused of promoting illegal mining and causing colossal losses to the exchequer. It is for the court to decide his fate. However, Ziaullah Afridi struck back by accusing the chief minister of failing to cooperate with him in going after the accused when he filed 97 FIRs, including 17 in Pervez Khattak’s native Nowshera district, of illegal mining.
The bitter verbal sparring between the two sides is destroying reputations and harming the PTI. In the process though, tales of corruption and misuse of power are becoming public knowledge – even if some are untrue.
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com