‘Corruption widespread in Pakistan due to weak institutions’

LAHORE: Corruption is widespread in Pakistan due to weak institutions, while discretion vested with the ruling elite, bureaucracy breeds more corruption than any measure, experts said.

Discretion is a tool to violate or twist rules, which in most cases provide benefits to the undeserving individuals and companies, they said.

Speaking at a workshop on World Anti-Corruption Day, social worker Dr Kishwar Dhingra said that discretion kills merit.

If a prime minister or chief ministers have discretion to relax the age, qualification and minimum experience on a lucrative post it would deprive numerous candidates with better qualification and experience to serve the nation, she said, adding that a person appointed without merit would serve the interests of the appointee and not the institution.

Similarly, she said, if a post of the head of a regulatory body falls vacant the chief executive of the federation or province has the discretion to make an interim appointment asking a person of his choice to officiate till further orders.

These orders prolong to months or even years. The regulator is likely to toe the line of the government on important regulatory matters, failing which he could be removed without any notice, she said.

This discretion is against the spirit of the autonomy and independence of any regulatory body, she said, adding, in fact, the chief executive of the state or province should not have even the discretion to appoint a regulator even on permanent basis on his will.

As suggested by the World Bank about five years ago, there should be a pool of executives in advance from which the vacant post of a regulatory body be filled immediately.

The chief executive could have discretion to appoint any person from that pool to fill the vacancy, she said.

She said the World Bank through Dr Khalid Mirza suggested that a team of professionals with immaculate reputation should interview individuals’ aspirant of serving a regulatory institution.

The penal should comprise a subject expert (engineer in case of Wapda, telecom expert in case of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) and persons like Saleem Lakha of Agha Khan University, Dr Ishrat Husain of IBA, Baber Ali from Packages Limited, Dr Ali Cheema from the LUMS, Dr Faisal Bari also from LUMs.

She said that those shortlisted by this panel will have an additional qualification to show in their CV. Those appointed would perform independently without any strings.

Dr Dhingra said that the regulatory quality would immensely increase and implementation of rules would be ensured. The regulatory bodies would remain functional, as there would be no vacant position of a member of the body that makes its operations redundant.

Pakistan recently suffered badly on trade front as the National Tariff Commission remained redundant due to failure of the government to fill the posts of its member for a long time, she said.

Social worker Sofia Asif said the discretions enjoyed by bureaucracy plays havoc with transparency.

The controller Customs, for instance, enjoys the discretion to confiscate an item whose import is banned in Pakistan; he can also allow its clearance on a punitive duty of up to 300 percent; and in case he considers that the importer in his innocence has imported the banned item he can levy a fine of three percent.

She said this is a very lucrative avenue to indulge in corruption without violating the law. Many imports are released through this discretion obviously after ensuring benefits for passing release order.

Sofia Asif said that if an item is banned it should be confiscated straight away and auctioned for export to any other destination.

It is an open secret that some seed money is involved at the clearance of each document related to imports, she said, adding though the amount may vary from Rs50 to Rs500, an importer has to part with money at 14 stages of import.

She said it is a fact that release of thousands of import consignments every day shows that the objections on incomplete documentation are removed without getting the unnecessary documents required by the law.

"Why we can’t do away with unnecessary documentation and make imports as simple as in Singapore?" She asked.

Financial analyst Amina Usman said the postings and transfers in bureaucracy and at the police station are done on the whims and will of ruling elite.

"Why can’t we make minimum three years tenure for any post in bureaucracy and policy like in the army.

Moreover, she said, the promotions should be subject to postings in lucrative and hardship as in the armed forces.