ZAHEER BHATTI
THE Pakistani Prime Minister once again betrayed his lack of statesmanship insisting with his beaten refrain of not making peace with the plunderers of national wealth, in response to a well-meaning suggestion by the Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider that he must strike a national consensus to send a message of complete solidarity to the world on the issue, at the most criticaljuncturein Pakistan’s political history whenitsjugular vein Kashmir was being choked by enemy India. This awkward dissention on the Solidarity Day with Kashmiris was a poor reflection on the country sending a disconcerting message to the world, which called for rising above party and personal considerations, and ought to have been avoided by the Pakistani Prime Minister. The AJK Prime Minister was not talking of individuals but the entire political spectrum of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir bereft with divisions which needed to be bridged. He even sought to address Imran Khan’s obsession with specific political adversaries by mentioning that his AK Government had also made significant amendments in the Accountability Law; implicitly meaning thereby that the process of accountability must nevertheless continue. This scribe has also severally emphasized that Imran Khan was not being asked to abandon the accountability process but for it to be an even-handed exercise which it was not, and to let those entrusted with the job deliver rather than taint their credibility by gunning only for chosen adversaries. Secondly, he needs to abandon disproportionate emphasis on accountability which was taking his focus away from other facets of governance and deliverance in which his Government was sadly lacking. In 18 months of misplaced witch-hunt and wild goose chase, unable to nail corruption of its chosen targets despite gearing the entire State machinery to the job, Imran Khan’s Government needed to rethink its strategy and review its benchmarks ratherthaninsist uponthe failed refrain.Evenif for the moment, it was to be assumed that the total assets of histargets comprised plundered wealth,it would not be even a miniscule of the cumulative corruption in Pakistan which at Rs 12 billion daily according to former NAB Chairman Admiral (Retd) Fasih Bokhari in 2012 had today risen to Rs 20 billion daily coming to RS 7300 billion or US $ 47 Billion annually which indicates a down the ladder endemic disease for lack of systems ranging from revenue collection to police, Patwar, the businessman, the agricultural, industrial and land mafias and the enforcement agencies. Imran Khan keeps quoting the Chinese and Malaysian examples that owe their bold accountability initiatives to great economic strides and stability, which was wantinginthe case of Pakistan having lost its economic and political sovereignty to the IMF dictating its anti-people terms, as the country struggles with its economic woes of double digit inflation, nose-diving currency and uncontrolled price hikes. A cruel joke rubbing salt over wounds of the common man was the Government announcement of a 10/15 billion rupees relief package subsidizing the Utility Stores and increasing the ten thousand non-existent ‘Sasta Tandoor’ for cheap ‘Roti’ reminding you of Shahbaz Sharif’s flopped programme, to fifty thousand by loan-financing the youth, and bringing down prices of essential commodities by 15 to 20%. But in the same breath pat came the news that price of edible oil and sugar at the Utility Stores had been raised by 5 and 2 rupees per KG respectively; so much for the common man’s relief. Most harrowing if not pathetic, is Imran Khan’s announcement to pay back foreign loans by selling the country’s Riko Diq Gold, one of the major natural resource assets of the country which was supposed to have been explored and used for financing key national development projects rather than doling it out to the imperialmoneylending agent.Thatthe countrywould be brought to such an impasse was never dreamt. Haplessness ofthe Governmentis evidentinitslaments about various cartels and mafias which seem to be beyond its control and the awfully beaten refrain of his Party blamingthe pastGovernments for corruption andthe current economic chaos; a familiar excuse offered by all political parties, the only difference being that the PTI Government had vowedtomakethe plunderers cough outtheloot,in whichit has dismally failed even to nail the corrupt with evidence in the court of law. It has instead chosen to hold media trial of its opponents with impunity in the absence of punitive libel laws against character assassination and defamation in the countrywhich oughtto have been forbidden byanapexcourt ruling. The fact of the matter is that corruption is so widespread that the entire system requires an overhaul. Successive governments instead have preferred to operate through various self-propelled instruments of accountability aimed at gunning for their rivals rather than ensure an across-theboard process.This unfortunately appearsto bethe case even with a financially clean personlike Imran Khan who refuses to see beyond his nosecontinuingto blamethecorruptmafias but doing nothing tangible to correct the situation, and finding nothing evil among coterie of migratory ‘electable’ opportunists gatheredaround him,while hiscorecamaraderieis seen pushedto back-benches killingwhateverlittleinitiative they had mustered for themselves. Rather than continue with the directionless wild goose chase, the Government would be well advised to scrap all so-called institutions of accountability including the current NAB which was abysmally flawed having been structured to sort out opponents.A new genuinely non-partisan single Authority be created for across-the-board accountability comprising the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and nominees in or equivalentto grade-22 deputed strictly accordingto seniority from respective core institutions of the country by their Chief Executives namely the Judiciary,Armed Forces and the Bureaucracy whose top officer be elevated as Secretary General; all with an irreversible fixed tenure. —The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
