Sharafat Kazmi Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said that the worst loss caused by corruption was that the moral value of that society diminishes and corruption was made acceptable and not acknowledged even as a menace.
Referring to the recently held Senate elections, he said that everyone had seen the spectacle of Senate elections; such elections could not be held now, therefore, technology should be used for the next elections along with other reforms that .
Addressing the cabinet meeting here, which was aired on the electronic media, Prime Minister said that ruling elite like Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari send stolen money abroad, as, if kept in the country, it is visible and when those in power send money out of the country, they join hands with money laundering agencies and weaken the institutions, which are supposed to guard against such practices.
He maintained that with the weakening of institutions, they come up with such schemes which the country does not need but has huge bribes in it, mega kickbacks in mega projects and then this bribed money goes out.
Prime Minister contended that since these people have so much money for corruption, then it is also run in institutions, people are bought in every institution, that money is used in media houses.
Citing a United Nations report, he said that dollars 1 trillion was laundered from poor countries to rich countries every year and transferred to rich countries for offshore accounts.
The money that was stolen from poor countries was dollars 1,000 billion.
The report was prepared by a panel, formed by UN Secretary General Financial Accountability Transparency and Integrity.
PM noted that dollars 7000 were stashed in the tax heavens, which belong to the poor countries.
Prime Minister said that in this way people were indebted and people pay the price of loans at high prices, through inflation.
When the money goes out, he noted, then the media was used to make it acceptable in the society and the same money goes to the institutions and from which they buy institutions, corruption was not considered a bad thing in the society, then it was said that ‘if one eats, one also invests, then it is said that a Zardari is heavier than everyone else’.
He noted that in this way the corrupt person becomes big, these things harm the morality of the nation and when morality is destroyed, there is no justice in this country; there is a separate law for the strong and the weak and the powerful strike deal and the poor go to jail.
He emphasized that when the morality of a country is destroyed, that country cannot do justice.
In a nation which has no moral value, then there is a law for the strong and another law for the weak.
