DHA scam and rampant corruption

Defence Housing Authority scam is being discussed in print and electronic media. Apart from the prime accused Hammad Arshad who owns Globaco, Kamran Kayani, the younger brother of former army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is accused of helping Globaco acquire the DHA City project. Fingers of accusation are being pointed towards Ashfaq Parvez Kayani by some commentriat who say that scam must be within his knowledge even if he was not involved. Last week, an accountability court in Lahore extended physical remand of Hammad Arshad, the prime accused, for another 12 days, while Kamran Kayani is reportedly abroad these days. Hammad Arshad’s company Globaco had signed an agreement with DHA in November 2009 to develop DHA City on a land measuring 25,000 kanals, but he failed to acquire land according to agreement and issued fake allotment letters and collected around Rs.16 billion from public.
The real picture will emerge after investigations, which must be held in a transparent manner. NAB should focus on the case irrespective of the fact whether accused is brother of former army chief. But it should not malign Defence Housing Authority, as hundreds of thousands of its members including private citizens would suffer. In fact, the corruption has permeated all strata of society in varying degree; and it should be eliminated at every level. However, there should be across the board accountability. Some journalists opined that military should neither get involved in forming housing society for its personnel nor enter into any business even for the welfare of its personnel. The question can be asked, if government servants, engineers, employees of other government departments are allowed to form housing societies, why military personnel cannot do it? Are they not citizens of Pakistan?
Last year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had congratulated the nation on discovery of iron, gold and copper reserves in Chiniot and expressed the hope it would help the county break the begging bowl. He regretted that acute scarcity of resources was hindrance in overcoming gas and electricity shortage; and allocation on education, health, employment and social sector was limited. He had the moral courage to admit that “Corruption is rampant in the society; touch any brick there is a filth and dirt under it”. Transparency International in its report for 2014 had stated: “Though politicians in Pakistan constantly accuse each other of corrupt practices and vow to end this evil, but when they come to power, corruption continues to rise in Pakistan and the rest of South Asia.” But how could a corrupt person belonging to the ruling elite could take action against the corrupt individual or an institution?
According to another report, it is not just the increasing cost of doing business in Pakistan that drives away foreign investment; many companies find problems with the speed in which tasks are accomplished in Pakistan. Reportedly, Walt Disney had pulled approximately $200 million worth of yearly textile production from Pakistan and put the country on a banned list of approved supplier countries. The company labeled Pakistan as a risk to their flow of business. Such an environment is an obstacle to foreign investment. Of course, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc., are sailing in the same boat. “South Asia now is the worst region in the world when it comes to corruption based on our studies,” said Srirak Plipat, Transparency International’s regional director for Asia Pacific. It is a matter of grave concern that corruption has deeply permeated in every strata of our society.
Scandals regarding corruption, misappropriation, plundering of billions from banks and other federal, provincial and semi-government departments abound. According to an earlier Transparency International Pakistan’s report, Pakistan lost more than Rs.8,500 billion (Rs8.5 trillion or US$94 billion) in corruption, tax evasion and bad governance during the last four years of the PPP government. In 1996, Transparency International had declared Pakistan as the second-most corrupt country in the world where corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, black marketers, smugglers, tax evaders and drug mafia were ‘rewarded’ through general amnesty schemes or through opportunities to whiten their black money. Though National Accountability Bureau claimed that it had recovered a part of the plundered money, yet most culprits either escaped or were honorably acquitted by the courts due to lacuna in prosecution and investigation, lack of evidence or witnesses. Nevertheless, since 1988 corruption has broken all the previous records.
In the past, efforts were made to reduce the incidence of corruption. During Ayub era, a number of corruption-tainted politicians were barred from participating in the elections under EBDO, but they were never tried and convicted. During Yahya Khan’s Martial Law, 303 civil servants and government functionaries were summarily dismissed but were not prosecuted. During the Bhutto era, services of around 1100 government employees were terminated without holding any trial against them with the result those involved in serious cases of corruption were let off the hook. There was another package for the corrupt under Pervez Musharraf’s watch on 30th April 2000, when Central Board of Revenue had announced Tax Amnesty Scheme to legalize all the hidden assets and black money by charging 10 per cent of the undisclosed income earned on or before 30th June 1999.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday launched a “Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme” for registration of non-filer traders. Addressing the ceremony, Nawaz Sharif had said the government has taken the challenges head on to steer the country out of crisis and put on the path of progress and prosperity. The scheme allows taxpayers to legalise their black money by paying a nominal 1% tax. One would not find such example of rewarding the tax evaders and those having plundered the national exchequer. In other words, nobody tried to set an example to deter others from pursuing corrupt practices. Unfortunately, the corruption has not only deprived the national exchequer of its revenues, it has eroded the profitability of the state sector enterprises. The efforts of the ruling elite to hinder the accountability process are obvious from the recent bill passed by the Sindh government to withdraw cases from the courts at any stage.