Art Buchwald immortalised US President Richard Nixon's famous "I am not a crook" phrase by making the title of his article the name of one of his books. Maybe one day President Asif Ali Zardari, who is not a hypocrite and thus never uses the word "corruption" anywhere at anytime in any of his speeches will say, "I am an honest man", but not under oath. Under oath is another matter, telling lies under oath is a favourite (and profitable) pastime in South Asia, particularly in Pakistan. The curse of perjury continues to haunt us in all spheres of our lives. Every enquiry, every investigation, every trial, every arbitration, etc reeks of rampant falsification and that too with absolute impunity, particularly as paid witnesses in any trial before a court of law. Knowing them to be "professional" witnesses, how many times have our honourable judges made an example out of them? When our bureaucrats lie through their teeth under oath in the Supreme Court, how many have the Honourable Justices sent to jail for perjury? Clearly, drastic corrective action is a crying need of the time, automatic and severe punishment acts as a deterrent of sorts. All over the developed world the drop in corruption has been commensurate with convictions for perjury. Our failure to deal with systemic perjury is why corruption has flourished. Accountability is difficult in a country where perjury taints all statements and/or cross-examinations thereof. For personal gain, whether monetary or otherwise, false representation of facts and distortions, a gentlemanly phrase for "outright lies", is the order of the day. To keep the real facts concealed, vested interests invariably volunteer (or pay volunteers) to become tainted and prejudiced witnesses in any enquiry or trial, to disfigure the truth in so brazenfaced and bold a manner that law enforcers, under influence of corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, etc do not have the courage to intercede and take action against them. To put it bluntly, justice can be manipulated to suit those who have a reason to manipulate it, and have the means, either money or influence, to do so. As opposed to the suited and booted liars in both our bureaucratic and commercial worlds, professional touts can be found outside many subordinate courts in Pakistan, ready to render "evidence" under oath for a price. In many criminal cases, the verdict is subject to either influence and/or disbursements by the highest bidder. While not always, perjury is frequent in enough of the cases for the situation to be considered catastrophic for the rule of the law. This subversion of the rule of law has become endemic in many countries in varying degrees, in Pakistan even more so. Those committing perjury, including distorting and destroying of evidence by the law enforcement agencies, must be punished by stiff imprisonments and heavy fines commensurate to the nature of the offence. The punishment should be exactly what the accused would have got if the evidence had been held to be correct. If based on the statements of the witnesses committing perjury the accused would go to the gallows, shouldn't those giving false evidence face the gallows themselves? No given formula can be used. The judge (or judges) must decide each case of perjury on merit and come down with a heavy hand against perjurers as well as their manipulators and abettors. Judiciary has a moral responsibility to ensure that the citizens of the country have a fair opportunity when they turn to the law for justice. When applied, justice must be fair and equivocal. This can only be done once rampant perjury is eliminated, and, if not eliminated altogether, at least contained by having stiff deterrent punishments. The controversy about fake credentials being used to enter parliament on false pretences, and thus conceivably preside over the destiny of the nation, is not only a tragedy but an irony. Unfortunately those with fake credentials are present in some numbers among our lawmakers. Then there is the hiding of illegal wealth by misdeclaration, on the other the failure to pay necessary taxes is endemic. The declaration of assets by a politician, a public servant, an income tax payer, etc is mostly false. The entire economic system of the country is under pressure because of the large deficit in the revenue collection. False declaration of income and wealth is considered a serious misdemeanour in most countries and carries automatic conviction and/or penalty thereof. Only about 2.0 million people (of the 170 million population) declare income/wealth in a country where 13 million homes have electricity (1.6 million in Karachi alone), at least 40 per cent of these residences fall above the threshold for paying income/wealth taxes. The potential taxpayers (1.5 million additional) could give us between Rs800-900 billion in additional incomes/wealth taxes alone. And all by ensuring that misdeclaration under oath is perjury. Under Section 194 of Pakistan Penal Code a person giving or fabricating false evidence, intending or knowing thereby that he will cause any person to be convicted of an offence which is capital by any law is liable to be punished with imprisonment for life or with rigorous imprisonment, which may extend to ten years and he may also be liable to fine. Further, if an innocent person is convicted and executed in consequence of such false evidence, the person who gave such false evidence would render himself liable to be punished either with death or with rigorous imprisonment extending to ten years and with fine. As held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan in a case reported as PLD 1984 Supreme Court Page 44, perjury is one of the most heinous social and moral offences. It is not only an offence punishable under the law, as stipulated under Section 194 PPC, but is also against the injunctions of Holy Qur'an (Sura Al-Nisa: 135). It is an evil which tends to disrupt the very basis of social order and make a mockery of the judicial system, be it Islamic or otherwise. Any person who deliberately tells a lie during solemn proceedings of a Court of Law, knowing fully well that he is thereby likely to ruin the life or reputation of an innocent person or put into jeopardy his liberty by falsely involving him in a criminal case, does not deserve any leniency and ought never to be let off lightly. The courts must arrest this tendency with a firm hand and do everything in their power to eradicate this evil from its roots. Awarding stiffer sentences, commensurate with the effect that the perjury would have wrought, would be a positive step in this direction. The tragedy is that our uniformed young men in Swat and South Waziristan, and innocent civilians throughout the land, are dying by the hundreds while such frauds and perjurers keep enjoying the luxuries of power, their wealth and influence based primarily on perjury. If the superior judiciary does not take action, those who are dying in battle or suffering injuries for the sake of this country may (or should) become inclined to do so on behalf of their hapless countryman. (acknowledging with gratitude the legal input of my friend Mazhar Jafri).
The writer is a defence and political analyst. Email: isehgal@pathfinder9. com
