President
Musharaf's recent continual open criticism of the former corrupt
regimes of Nawaz Sharif and Banzir Bhutto has gone down well with
the Pakistani people. The fact that he and his government are
exposing the politicians who ruled the nation for the last few
decades is vital in order to enable the people to reject corrupt
politicians in the coming elections. True democracy cannot even be
envisaged without cleansing the Pakistani political arena. With
this in mind the Musharaf government announced its plans for
across the board accountability which was whole heartedly welcomed
by the Pakistani people and the parties which are labeled as
pro-government. With only a few months of the Musharaf government
remaining, the government to be formed after the elections will
depend on the success and effectiveness of the present
accountability process especially that of the politicians and the
leadership of those political parties to contest the elections.
There is a common perception that the government is not succeeding
in its accountability process to the extent which is required.
Well there have been great successes by the National
accountability Bureau (NAB) which could not even have been
imagined during the past decades. Those people who considered
themselves to be above the law were brought to accountability
courts in shackles. The NAB also had great success abroad by
extraditing shamed former admiral Mansoor from the USA and also
purchasing thousands of documents from the British government
regarding corruption carried out by Banzir and Nawaz. The
credibility of the Musharaf government has won the support of
western governments in uprooting corruption in Pakistan. Cabinet
ministers in Britain have heavily criticised the governments of
Nawaz and Banzir on national television, terming them as totally
corrupt and the worst enemies of the Pakistani People. Within the
country NAB has convicted former federal ministers and prime
ministers, disqualifying them from public office, but there is
concern that top members of the previous governments are being
given sanctuary as long as they support the present regime.
It is clear that the Musharaf government is far more serious in
carrying out the accountability process than the previous corrupt
regimes of Nawaz and Banazir, but the coming into being of the
PML(QA) has created an apparent shelter for corrupt members of
previous governments from both the PML(N) and the PPP. There is no
contention in that the PML(QA) has received full fledged support
from the government receiving coverage and promotion on TV, the
likes of which is not given to any other political party. Such
steps by the government only work against it and play into the
hands of the opposition. Other than the PML(QA) leadership, the
leadership of the Millat party also faces several serious
allegations. Farooq Laghari faces the accusations of the famous
Mehran Bank scandal but what is more disturbing is the news of the
rigging of the 97 elections which he was involved in as he was the
President at the time. The interim Prime Minister at the time Mr.
Meraaj khalid was also involved in this state sponsored deception
of the Pakistani people. Yet the Musharaf government seems to be
fully treating Laghari as a clean and honest politician. It should
speedily investigate these allegations of initiating, supervising
and legitimising rigging.
There are many other famous names escaping any NAB deliberations.
The government and the NAB insist that they are powerless to act
against these people as there is no evidence against them. The
simple argument to that would be that such people do not leave any
evidence behind, thus a formula suggested by Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri,
chairman Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) regarding accountability
seems to be the best solution. The formula given by Dr
Tahir-ul-Qadri is asking such people to provide details of their
assets before they entered public office and details of their
current assets after being in public office. If the increase in
assets is according to that possible through their private
businesses then there is no sign of misappropriation, otherwise
there is evidence of corruption. Any evidence of misappropriation
of the slightest degree is enough to disqualify anyone from
running for public office. It seems as though the government must
take such suggestions seriously if it wants to avoid total failure
as the return of corrupt politicians, will be seen as 'Musharaf's
failure'. |
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About
Writer:
Mr. Jawed Iqbal, is an independent writer and a
political analyst. His articles appear in printed and
electronic media of Pakistan.
eMail : JAWEDS_WORLD@HOTMAIL.COM
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Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri is reportedly
to have claimed that when in power he will complete the
accountability process in one month, so the government should take
up this offer at its time of dire need. As Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri and
Imran khan chairman PTI are the only two leaders who have
relentlessly called for across the board accountability starting
with politicians. Other political parties have merely used
accountability as a political slogan to give the impression that
they have nothing to fear from the accountability process.
Musharaf was seen as a saviour at a time when it was thought that
the country will plunge into a never ending bliss under the
previous regime. Thus all those who were glad to see the back of
the so-called democratic governments with the hope of making a new
start for Pakistan are now feeling that they may have been tricked
into supporting Musharaf. The frustration of the Pakistani people
is at such a level that if another corrupt regime was placed over
them nothing will be able to stop them from coming to the streets
in their millions.
| A formula
suggested by Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri, chairman
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) regarding accountability seems
to be the best solution. The formula given by Dr
Tahir-ul-Qadri is asking such people to provide details of
their assets before they entered public office and details
of their current assets after being in public office. If the
increase in assets is according to that possible through
their private businesses then there is no sign of
misappropriation, otherwise there is evidence of corruption. |
Thus the importance of the accountability process cannot be under
estimated as its failure to stop the return of corrupt politicians
will nullify all the progress and reforms made by the Musharaf
government. Currently the primary objective for Musharaf and NAB
should be to investigate those politicians who will be contesting
the elections starting with all those who have been in office over
the past decade. It seems as though that there are elements in
Musharaf's government who are an obstacle to the accountability
process. Musharaf will gain everything by completing the
accountability of politicians before the elections but on the
other hand will lose everything if he fails to do so properly. For
president Musharaf the choice is as simple as can be, he must
realise that not only does the success of his government depend on
the proper completion of the accountability of politicians before
the elections, but also this is the last chance that Pakistan has
to uproot the corrupt system of the past. As Musharaf's government
has powers which will not be available to following democratic
governments, in that the might of the army is fully behind the
present government which helps in speedily dealing with difficult
issues.
Musharaf recently said in an interview to the "BBC World's
Hard Talk Pakistan" program, that the NAB has its own courts
and the military is not interfering. Well this may be a positive
point in giving the message that the NAB is independent but it
seems that the NAB will not be able to carry out the required
accountability of politicians on time. It must be noted that Chris
Pattern the EC representative during his recent visit to Pakistan
emphasised upon 'democratic accountability' in Pakistan. He made
it clear that the EC's support of Pakistan's 'poverty reduction
strategy' and overall cooperation is dependant on the completion
of the reforms set out by Musharaf's government. Thus it is clear
that Pakistan's prosperity which is not possible without mutual
cooperation between Pakistan and the western nations, depends
wholly on Musharaf stopping the return of corrupt politicians. To
fully achieve this, election reforms will also play a big
part.
Thus Musharaf should seriously
reconsider his policy on accountability to make it a success and
not the joke it is presently being considered as. |
Accountability: Now or Never!