Aren’t we a corrupt nation?

National Accountability Board (NAB) has issued a statement saying that in Pakistan daily corruption ranges between 6 to 7 billion rupees per day which PM and his cabinet could not digest and straightaway condemned and rejected it which I dare not object but my simple question is as to who can say on oath that we are not a corrupt nation.  Why did PM constitute a committee headed by Law Minister Farooque Naek to probe the allegations leveled by NAB if there is no corruption in the country? Doesn’t it itself prove that there is corruption in my beloved country which is officially named as Islamic Republic of Pakistan?

Figures could be a bit higher or even lower which is of no consequence to be honest so far as amount is concerned for the simple reason that there is corruption at each and every level depending upon the position the person enjoys who then resorts to corruption by adopting various logistics both apparent and hidden. Regretfully we find that there is a gradual increase in corruption rather than decline so if we go through our history we will find that we were not that corrupt say 10 years or even 25 years ago but as the time passed on we at least have tried to improve upon our corruption tactics and logistics. Figure wise our level of corruption has never even touched zero but instead it has increased or decreased  on annual basis and very much regretfully now we have reached at such a stage where even if someone tries to be honest and avoid indulging in corruption then he or she is called as timid or coward or shy. This is very sad situation where corrupt is appreciated and an honest is ridiculed.

Just out of curiosity I checked on Google about corruption in different countries and found out that Wiki / Corruption_Perceptions_Index has listed almost all the countries in the table where corruption figures are shown for each country for each year from 2002 to 2011 and based on such figures each country has been rated at the scale whereby least corrupt countries are shown at the top of the ladder while the most corrupt countries are at the bottom of the list. Moreover if some countries are rated equally then their rating rank is commonly shared by all the respective countries. Interestingly three countries namely Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are found to be the least corrupt countries on the face of earth and all the three are rated as 1 whereas Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are the most corrupt countries which are ranked and rated at the bottom serial number 174. My beloved Pakistan is as low as 139 along with Azerbaijan, Kenya, Nepal and Nigeria sharing the same ranking. Comoros, Guyana, Honduras, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia are just above us because they are ranked as 133 while Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Syria and Ukraine are lower than us because their common ranking is 144. UK and Japan share the common ranking of 17 while USA is places at 19. India which we take as our eternal enemy is much less corrupt than us because it is ranked at 94 along with Benin, Colombia, Dijobouti, Greece, Moldova, Mangolia and Senegal. Qatar which is leading in per capital income in the world is placed as 27 along with UAE whereas regretfully Kuwait where I am living since 1978 is at serial 66 along with Romania and Saudi Arabia.

The ranking chart proves that all the countries are corrupt and not even a single country can boast of being corruption free and this is quite understandable simply because it is the individuals who count while determining if someone is corrupt or not and to err is human thus the chances are in infinity to find someone who is not corrupt which means that is this situation we should try to minimize and not maximize instead. How shameful and painful I felt to read that Qatar and UAE both placed at rank 27 are the only Muslim countries which are least corrupt while above them are as many as 26 countries namely whose ranking is shown in bracket (1) Denmark, Finland, New Zealand;  (4) Sweden;  (5) Singapore; (6) Switzerland; (7) Australia, Norway; (9) Canada, Netherlands; (11) Iceland; (12) Luxembourg; (13) Germany; (14) Hong Kong; (15) Barbados; (16) Belgium; (17) Japan; UK (19) USA; (20) Chile, Uruguay; (22) Bahamas, France, Saint Lucia; (25) Austria, Ireland which are found to less corrupt than we the Muslims.

What shocked me the most and I am sure you are with me and not against me that we Muslims are found to be most corrupt than non Muslims to be honest otherwise Qatar which has 100% Muslim nationals like Kuwait where only 2 are Christian Kuwaitis with per capita income of US $ 98,409 (IMF) and US $ 98,900 (CIA) should have been at the top of the ladder and not Demark, Finland and New Zealand whose incomes are US $ 37,048 (IMF) 37,600 (CIA) ; 35,981 (IMF) 36,700 (CIA) and 28,012 (IMF) 28,000 (CIA) respectively. This very explicitly and loudly proves in black & white that Danish, Finns and New Zealanders whose income is far below than Qataris have proved to be more strong in morality otherwise they had not been placed so above Qataris. This very explicitly and loudly proves that we the Muslims are way below in morality otherwise our Islamic countries had not been ranked so low as it has been shown on the chart.

As a Pakistani I do not want to accept that I belong to the country which is quite but natural and likewise my compatriots too can be truly proud to be citizens if a country which is corruption free but alas it is no more than illusionary a psychological state of mind which has no relation whatsoever with hard ground realities otherwise neither Wiki has labeled us as corrupt nor even our own NAB has said so but what to do and how to refute the hard facts. Let me go another step forward in the same direction and say that if our honorable PM Raja Pervez Ashraf who categorically unaccepted NAB’s corruption report puts his hand on his heart he can very well feel that not only we as a nation are corrupt but also his heart will automatically tell him that his name too has been flashed to be involved in corruption. Why do we have Anti Corruption department headquartered in Islamabad with branches all over the country when we are not corrupt?

Who can prove that we are not corrupt?