Resetting the system

By Amir Zia

July 2016

Monthly ‘Narratives’

Pakistan lacks a mechanism to hold the corrupt accountable and prevent their rise to the top

Pakistan’s fragile and flawed democracy again seems to be struggling for survival. There are questions not just over the efficiency of the entire system, but its credibility and moral authority remains at stake in the wake of the Panama Scandal that has exposed the offshore companies, wealth and properties owned by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and family.

In a way, this scandal has become a living metaphor for the corruption, greed and lawlessness in our highest echelons of power. It is also a perfect epitaph for this dysfunctional system, which lacks a mechanism to hold the corrupt accountable and prevent their rise to the top. The sooner this system is declared dead and buried, the better it is for Pakistan and Pakistanis.

Sharif’s crony media, however, has been trying hard to dilute the issue and undermine the severity of the scandal, ignoring the flaws of the system altogether. It is attempting to do this by dragging secondary and irrelevant names into the scandal, and by giving the impression that it was not the prime minister but his three ‘talented’ children who established their vast offshore business and real-estate empire.

And now these youngsters own and operate all the flagship businesses of the Sharif family.

Can we really believe this sham story line?

The Sharifs — and the world — know that this technical fig-leaf about the ownership of businesses cannot conceal the ugliness of corruption and illegal funds used by the ruling family (read: its patriarch) to lay the foundations of his foreign money-making empire.

Those who have followed this saga of relentless loot, plunder and corruption are well aware that the Panama Scandal offers nothing new. It only reconfirms what has been public knowledge for more than two decades — the existence of shadowy offshore companies, hidden wealth and properties of the Sharif family. And this scandal is only the tip of the iceberg. The magnitude and scale of the corruption in the corridors of power is mindboggling. Therefore, the ruling PML-N, its allied parties and even some names in the opposition are attempting to drag the issue so that it fades away from public memory — as always happens in Pakistan.

On one hand, the PML-N is engaging the opposition parties into meaningless talks on the terms of references (ToRs) for an enquiry into the scandal. On the other, it is planning legislation aimed at making kosher all the ill-gotten wealth stacked abroad by Pakistan’s most corrupt and dishonest people, including the ruling family.

Yes, in Pakistan’s flawed system, it is overwhelmingly the corrupt versus the corrupt in a friendly — and fixed — game of chess. The corrupt are defending and bailing out their own – as in the case of the Sharifs now — because their selfish interests converge. Even many in the opposition are afraid to set the wheel of justice into motion, knowing well that a genuine, free, fair and autonomous accountability process won’t stop at just a few individuals, but will eventually come after them too. They know that while today it is the Sharifs who are in the eye of the storm, tomorrow it could be their turn. The bottom-line that doesn’t change is that the existing system allows corruption and misrule to thrive and go unpunished.

This state of affairs signifies all that is rotten in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Let’s first focus on the system’s inability and lack of capacity to correct itself and purge the corrupt out, especially those who have executive authority and political clout. If this system had any legal, constitutional and institutional powers to do this, we would not have been witnessing fruitless and time-wasting discussions on ToRs for the Panama Scandal investigations? The charges of corruption against the prime minister would have automatically set into motion an accountability process and forced him to resign, as happens – and has happened — in civilised and democratic countries.

But the Pakistani version of a corrupt democratic order does not have any provision for this kind of accountability. Pakistani democracy has scandalously become synonymous with corruption, misrule and dictates of the minority rather than as an accountable, responsible and inclusive system. And this ruling elite — comprising feudal lords, tribal chiefs and super-rich urban industrialists, who have interests in the agricultural sector just as the rural elite has stakes in the industry — will not frame laws to make their own lives miserable. That is why we either see selective justice of those who are on the wrong side of the political order or criminal cover-ups of corruption, wrongdoings and misrule, which is being attempted today. Pakistan’s successive civil and military rulers have so far failed to break this pattern.

The National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency and other anti-corruption bodies are subservient to the government of the day. They cannot proceed against a sitting minister let alone the prime minister. The police have become a handmaiden of politicians and lost all operational autonomy and independence to fight day-to-day crime and tackle law and order issues.

The superior judiciary — despite good intentions — is also not in a position to play its due role when the executive authorities remain non-cooperative or become the target of a probe themselves. The ToRs, the government initially submitted to the Supreme Court Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali for the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the Panama Scandal, and the way it was rejected by the honourable court because the ambit of probe was too vague and broad, highlight the limitations of the judiciary.

The parliamentary system also lacks the power and capacity to hold the prime minister or the ruling party accountable for any wrongdoing, corruption and misrule against the interest of the federation and the state.

After the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment in April 2010, which stripped the president of the power to dissolve parliament, the prime minister emerged as a dictator. The system was left without any constitutional checks and balances and accountability process. The anti-defection law — framed to prevent horse-trading — also cemented the position of the prime minister, making lawmakers hostage to the dictates of the party leader. Now a lawmaker cannot challenge or vote against the party-line in parliament as per conscience, which basically means submitting before the wishes of the party head.

All these undemocratic safeguards have made self-correction within the system next to impossible. The defenders of this corrupt system usually say that only the people of the country can oust any government from power and that cannot be done before the government completes its five-year term. On principle this may appear to be a sound argument, but in the Pakistani context — or of any other third world country — it is a highly flawed statement because the corrupt democratic order and the ruling elite perpetuate themselves using ill-gotten wealth and political clout. And they marginalise the genuine representatives of the country’s oppressed communities and classes.

The rule of the corrupt super-rich minority in the name of democracy is a destabilising factor for the state, triggering political instability, violence, lawlessness and extrem- ism. This is what is happening in Pakistan now.

The country and its future prospects are being choked by a corrupt, self-serving, incompetent minority led by a business family. The system offers no remedy to fix this. The delay in the administration of justice to individuals involved in the Panama Scandal may prolong and strengthen the corrupt system and the ruling elite, but it will further weaken the state, which can implode if it fails to resolve its internal contradictions.

This is a dangerous situation and calls for immediate corrective measures. The choice cannot be simpler — a corrupt democratic order or Pakistan. The two cannot exist together.

Pakistan cannot be secured without resetting the system to empower people at the grassroots level through effective local governments and sweeping reforms aimed at democratising the political parties. Any future reforms must put in place an effective and institutionalised accountability mechanism that bars for good loan-defaulters, tax evaders and the corrupt from contesting elections or holding public office. It should also ensure that parliamentarians and their immediate dependent family members do not have any business and financial stakes in foreign lands. If any of their independent family members are settled abroad, then the money trail of their wealth and property should be provided in black and white.

Pakistan also needs laws to end dynastic politics and ensure that political parties do not remain family fiefdoms. This means that they must have proper membership and internal elections to select office bearers at all levels and their leadership must also change after one or two terms.

Reintroducing the minimum educational qualification criteria for candidates running for parliament and the law preventing public officeholders from bidding for the same slot more than two times are also crucial for resetting the system and cleaning up the political stables. While the self-serving leaders of some political parties and their cronies will resist attempts to reset the system, there are politicians both inside and outside parliament who can join hands to bring about meaningful reforms. The state institutions also cannot remain oblivious of the flaws of the current order and must support a change that allows accountability and clean and competent representation in parliament.

It is time to make tough choices — and that too on a fast-track basis. Neutrality and silence are not an option at this juncture. Inaction will only strengthen the corrupt and weaken the country, something we just cannot afford.