CORRUPTION
AN EVIL
By:
CH. MUHAMMAD MUBEEN
Mubeen & Partners Law Firm,
Who is a dual qualified lawyer in England & Pakistan.
“A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car;
but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”
Corruption is a widespread phenomenon an international problem all over the World now a day. In accordance with corruption perception index 2016 results, published by Transparency International, Pakistan is ranked 116 among 176 countries as most corrupted countries of the world.
Introduction:
There is no doubt that corruption has eaten the whole economy of Pakistan. When the government realized that the involvement of public official and political parties in corruption charges they passed an ordinance of national accountability bureau 1999, making national accountability as an autonomous federal institution to combat with correction cases, NAB is the institution that investigates inquiries arrests individuals of corruption charges. Corruption is defined as pertain “to use public office for private gain, and it can also be defined as “wrong doing on the part of authority or powerful party through means that are illegitimate, immoral or incompatible with ethical standards”. In this article I will discuss only political and economic corruption in Pakistan.
National
index and rise of corruption:
The index also revealed that Pakistan's score of tackling corruption in 2016 were decreased from 50% to 45 % from 2013 to 2016. This is a clear indication that corruption in Pakistan is rising and Pakistan should take immediate further steps to tackle the increasing number of corruptions.
In Pakistan, the most common form of corruption is bribery. In term of true definition a person should have to pay for everything: i.e. for GOVT job/private, for fair means and fouls. Each and every thing is under the control of corruption.
In this article, we aim to explain how bribery is regulated under Pakistani laws and what are is main causes and effects, the role of government ant the remedial measures as a whole.
National
Legislation in Pakistan:
Under Pakistani law, the sanctions for acts of bribery are mainly criminalized and prohibited by the Criminal Code 1898. There is no civil enforcement when it comes to the regulation of anti-corruption issues. Criminal law is the only source for criminalizing acts of corruption. The person offering the bribe can be charged with 4 to 12 years of imprisonment. The second clause of the same article condemns also the public official who accepts the bribery. So not only is the person attempting to bribe guilty, the official himself is guilty too.
The bribery rules extended to include foreigners. So, that non-Pakistani citizens and foreign companies, whom are doing business in Pakistan, can also face conviction or investigation of bribery under Pakistani legislation. Foreigners may also face criminal prosecutions and civil investigations under their own legislation.
Main
causes of corruption in Pakistan:
Root causes of corruption in Pakistan can very easily be detected, though it is easy to detect them but much difficult to eradicate them one need to put up power of Hercules to: a heart of freedom fighter, a mind of Iqbal and a leadership of Jannah. The main reason why Pakistan is merged into corruption is the absence of fundamental lack of justice along with proper implementation of law. We can broadly categorized main causes of corruption as 1- political instability 2- lack of accountability 3-lack of awareness, 4- poverty the mother of all evils, 5- high rate of unemployment, 6- unequal status of common masses 7- lack of moral character in society.
It would require a huge dedication from our leader ship as well as working class to wipe out the basic causes of corruption. We should always strive for practical actions to wipe out its root causes from its roots.
Side
effects of corruption:
Corruption is biggest hinder in the way of progress of a country. Developing countries like Pakistan feel its worst and most serious effects very seriously as;--
1. Not achieving the goals that our leader set for the progress of our country and for the betterment of nation.
2. Pakistan has lost its way, since 1947 form its establishment up to 2017, its facing corruption, illiteracy, evils, political instability and unemployment, so lingering on and not progressing its basic cause is corruption.
3. It is the ghost of corruption that we are still on the place form the last 70 years.
4. Instability in institution and lose political structure is due to corruption.
5. Education system, economic system and all other fields of social point even sports system is declining day by day i.e. In 2012 the participant of Pakistani sports man in Olympic game were only seven out them only one won silver medal.
Penalties:
The first clause of prevention of corruption act 1947 and Punjab anti-corruption establishment rule 1985 state that, any person involve in corruption or corrupt practices in the territory of Pakistan should be liable under the act and under Cr.P.C. 1898 enabling all the clauses and sections of prevention of corruption act can sentence the person committing the act of bribery to a prison sentence ranging from 4 to 12 years. This does not mean the company is out of the loop; article 253 determines the punishment for companies.
Important parts:
Penal Code (XLV 1860) Sec. 511 Punjab anti-corruption establishment rule 1985 Rr. 7-19 and 15 (2)(b) constitution of Pakistan 1973 art 199 state that no person shall be liable under corruption or corrupt practice or consider criminal without investigation and conducting preliminary inquiry and after reasonable opportunity of hearing.
Pakistan’s remedial measures of
corruption:
Pakistan has done much more to prevent corruption and corrupt practices including all departments and institutions including the following:-
1. establishment of NAB department (NAB ordinance 1999) and NAB courts to curtail and for trail of white collar crimes.
2. Media is well flourished from last 22 years and free at liberty to show all corruption issues and people and high light flaws where there are found.
3. From creative visual art with origination like Morongo films, ICT collaboration like technology for the people initiative the potential interest of innovation and integrity are easy to find in Pakistan.
4. Business is driving the open government partnership efforts in Pakistan are collaborated like open Lahore and CIPE are working to improve transparency we must support them.
5. Furthermore leadership program and value based networks originations like Atlantic council and the British council are doing great job, but there is much more to do.
6. Islam is the true source of right way and guidance. The system of government given by Prophet Muhammad is unique, skilled, practical and effective by apply the Islamic way of government and adopting the true way of living according to Qur’an and Sunnah would save us from the worst evil of corruption.
Conclusion:
To sum up we can say There is various national and international legislations deal with bribery as we Mentioned in this article differ so much from each other. Even though the research result revealed that bribery is rising in Pakistan and Pakistani Government is not taking enough efforts to tackle with corruption, with the scope of the bribery rules, foreigners, may still face conviction for bribery in Pakistan. Furthermore, under PAK law, even if foreign person is convicted in bribery in another country, that person can also be prosecuted in Pakistan under the Pakistani bribery legislation.
Corrupt
politicians make the other ten percent look bad.”
(H. Kissinger)