White-collar crime?

This refers to the article ‘White-collar crime’ (Oct 14) by Dr Farrukh Saleem. The writer has asserted that around half of Rs7.5 trillion in government expenses is siphoned off by white-collar criminals. No concrete evidence is provided to substantiate the claim. Merely having high infant mortality rate, which is associated with socioeconomic factors doesn’t prove the point. For example, the US has higher infant mortality rate compared to OECD member countries but it is attributed to relatively higher poverty rate and weaker social safety net in the US and not to the white-collar crime.

There is no relationship between complaints and conviction rate. How could a court convict someone without having evidence? If conviction rate based on the number of complaints is low at the FIA or NAB, it shows that an overwhelming majority of complaints are without any basis and are causing irreparable damage to the defendants. Capacity enhancements by these institutions are unlikely to improve the conviction rate. It will only result in the suffering of more people whose stories do not appear in these pages.

Abdul Latif

Canberra/Australia