The writer asks an interesting question, if a purely civilian government had been accussed of as much corruption as this government has been over the last year, would the Army have allowed it to function?
AZIZ-UD-DIN AHMAD
A single scandal out of the numerous that has surfaced during the last six months would have been considered enough before 1999 to justify the removal of the administration. The impression one gathers is that these days government leaders can get away with murder. The names of important ministers and officials were mentioned in sugar crisis, purchase of defective Chinese locomotives, highly questionable privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills and the Karachi Stock exchange crash. Those at the helm of affairs have however continued to push things under the rug. None accused of involvement in these scams has been arraigned and no heads rolled.
In January the sugar crisis enveloped the whole country. A cartel of federal ministers and the PML leading lights was accused of creating artificial shortages by holding back the stocks of sugar. Names were mentioned and figures of the stocks released by opposition members in the National Assembly. The shortages caused an unprecedented rise in prices, which skyrocketed, to Rs 42 per kg leading to countrywide protests. The government first decided to take the issue to NAB, then hesitated and finally dropped the idea. The administration moved in to bring down the prices only after the sugar mafia had pocketed billions.
In the last week of May the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly uncovered the $98 million Chinese locomotive scam involving three retired generals who had held top posts in Pakistan Railways at the time of the purchases. They faced charges of buying 69 locomotives from China on supplier’s credit at a price of $98m, approximately Rs 5.9b, at an inflated price and without ascertaining that the locomotives could operate on the country’s railway tracks.
It was maintained that some of the deadly accidents had occurred due to the Chinese locomotives and bogies, as they could not run on the Pakistani tracks. The PAC subcommittee however could not muster courage to hold the retired officers accountable even after Railways Secretary Shakeel Durrani stated in categorical terms that rules were seriously violated while striking the deal. “Had I been the chairman of the Railways at that time, I would have never gone for such a deal,” Mr Durrani added. The whole thing was explained away as a deal brokered “in good faith.” despite huge losses incurred by the exchequer. None cared to investigate the real motives behind the shady deal.
On March 31 Pakistan Steel Mills, the country’s largest industrial unit, was sold for a meager Rs 21.68 billion. It was widely maintained that the market price of the PSM’s land alone was manifold the price offered for the entire national asset. What strengthened apprehensions was that one of the Pakistani bidders in the consortium was a shady figure facing fraud cases in courts and was accused of being a front man. The matter was finally taken up by the Supreme Court which held the transaction null and void on the ground that it was vitiated by acts of commission and omission on the part of certain state functionaries who had violated mandatory provisions of law and the rules. No action was taken by the government against those involved despite the apex court’s incriminatory remarks. This too was treated as having been done “in good faith.”
The KSE crashed in early June with its 100 index dipping by 622 points in two days wiping out Rs 204 billion from an aggregate capitalisation of Rs 2,968 billion. This naturally revived the memories of earlier crashes particularly of March 2005 in which investors had lost $13billion. Former Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had hinted at that time at the involvement of important government functionaries in the affair. This motivated National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue to summon former SECP chief Dr Tariq Hassan. Dr Hassan presented a White Paper in which he disclosed that he was summarily removed from the post because he was about to catch a few big fishes involved in the crash because the stock market manipulators had access to the Prime Minister through Dr Shah and Omar Ayub.
This leads one to conclude that there are three possible causes behind the lack of action on the part of the administration. First, those in control of the government are thoroughly incapable of managing the affairs of the state. Second, the high and mighty in Islamabad are in fact partners in the grand loot which makes them look the other way as one scam takes place after another. Third, the high ups are held hostage by powerful cartel chiefs, financial manipulators, racketeers and corrupt politicians presently herded together in the PML-led ruling alliance. The powers that be turn a blind eye to the misdeeds of a greedy and corrupt mafia because it provides them the much needed political prop.
The way the NAB has refused to take notice of any of these scandals strengthens the perception that the accountability body was never meant to act as an impartial institution but was devised as an instrument to coerce politicians in the opposition to toe the government line and institute cases against those who refused to cooperate. The scams have damaged the legitimacy of the government and called to question its right to rule.
E-mail queries and comments to: [email protected]