teachers lathi charged

Corruption and Taxes

            According to the Court’s procedure when opportunity of cross-examination of a witness is given to the opposite party and the other party waives its right of cross-examining the witness, the Court brings this fact in the judgment that opportunity was given but the party did not cross-examined it, meaning thereby that the party accepts what the witness has stated.

            Although much weight should not be attached to such like reports but when allegation is put against a person, institution or a party, it becomes the liability of person, institution or a party to investigate the allegation for the removal of the wrong opinion which is created in the minds of the people.

            But the situation is different in my Country. Election is held, less than 50% of the total votes are polled. A candidate is elected with a few thousands votes and then he becomes the King of the constituency. Every department is put under him. All the executive officers look to him for the guidance. I do not accept this fact that corruption is done without his knowledge. When he has no knowledge then why he is sitting there and when he has knowledge how many cases he prepared against the corrupt officers. This is the actual point of discussion. When a person cannot control the leakage of money or corrupt practices then what moral authority or legal authority he should have to impose new taxes or increase the ratios of the existing taxes or increase the prices of the items in the Government control.

            More corruption entails more taxes. Burden of taxes on the people without bringing better change in their lives is the extreme of cruelty. When people come out against the cruelty then they are mercilessly beaten by those persons whose salaries have been doubled. The main purpose of doubling the salaries of the law enforcing persons, in my opinion, is to crush those who want justice from the Government in distribution of the amenities of life. It is the same old rule to put one poor against the other poor to secure the Government.

            The present Government does not feel any shame when it boasts that “full support of Army is with the Government”. What does this simple sentence mean? I fully pondered on it in light of prevailing situations, such reports of corruption, playing with Court’s verdict on NRO; I reached to conclusion that the Government’s policy is to keep every person in uniform having gun in the hand happy, double their salaries to encourage them to beat the innocents.

            Akram Sheikh was right when he said that Amendment was made for the appointment of Judges while the Generals were spared. In my Country, every political party sings songs of the glory of Armed Forces. In their opinion, only persons like Ziaul Haq, Musharraf etc were symbols of evils which overthrew their Governments while the rest of the persons who assisted them till the last day were angels. Zia and Musharraf were nothing without the support of the whole army, and the same is the situation with the political Governments.

            The Supreme Court which takes suo muto notice on every importance issue should also take notice on the level of corruption and imposition of taxes. The Supreme Court should stop the Government from imposition of new taxes or increasing the ratios of existing taxes until it has improved the level of governance. Reports with specific figures have been published that the level of corruption has increased both at the Federal and provincial levels while the Government is intending to impose more taxes. First it should control the corruption then should suck the blood of the people in shape of taxes.

            The mention of Army in this discussion was for the purpose that the Governments in Pakistan feel danger from army. When the Government feel satisfaction from the Army then they have no regard for the people which is evident from the conduct of the Government functionaries. When 16 millions lambs come in front of 1 million wolves, they cannot do any thing to the wolves.

            Whenever the present Government took any measure to the dismay of the Army Generals, there would be no democratically elected Government on the next day as we have seen in the past. And as we have seen the inability of the Government, in the cases of the issuance of notification relating to the ISI or sending the DG ISI to India for joint investigation in Mumbai attacks.

            I accept Army a reality in Pakistan which is dominant on all the political and social forces, therefore, I request it to take pity on the people of Pakistan and guide the Government for using the money scrupulously on projects beneficial to the people, to strengthen the system of accountability—not of the NAB whose officials are often reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not cooperating with the Court.

            ANP should consider its performance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province because it claims to be the party of Pakhtuns and is unable to control corruption. This label of corruption is sufficient for the defeat of ANP in the next election.

Manzoor Ahmad Yousafzai

Friday, 04 June 2010

Central Govt, KPK rated most corrupt (The Frontier Post report).

KARACHI: The National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 indicates that the overall corruption in 2010 has increased from Rs 195 billion in 2009 to Rs 223 billion, and 70% Pakistanis say that present government is more corrupt than previous government. Most people considered the past Federal government to be cleaner. This is quite similar if we look at the response towards provincial governments, except Punjab. However, if we look at the results from provinces from a stand alone point of view, Punjab is the only province where present provincial government is rated to be cleaner than previous provincial government and Khyber Pakhtunkawa is rated as the most corrupt province. Police and Power maintained their ranking as the top two most corrupt sectors, and land administration is ranked as the 3rd most corrupt sector. Corruption in Judiciary, Education and Local Government has also increased compared to 2009, whereas FBR’s two departments, Customs and Taxation are ranked as the least corrupt sectors. In terms of bribery per act, Land Administration is rated as the most corrupt sector where each incident of corrupt act is Rs 46,414 whereas the total bribery in other nine sectors is Rs 127,728. Syed Adil Gilani, Chairman of Transparency International (TI), Pakistan, said that Corruption is the root cause of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, shortage of electricity, food etc and lack of governance in Pakistan, and that the credibility of Pakistan is almost at the lowest level, which can be seen from almost no funding in last two years from the Friends of Pakistan trust fund being managed by the World Bank. He said the most corrupt sector is Tendering which eats away at least 40% of Pakistan development budget, and this is confirmed from the recent results of transparent tendering for transportation of sugar in Trading Corporation of Pakistan where TCP has saved at least Rs 49.3 million by implementing Public Procurement Rules 2004, which is 40% lower than cost of same work awarded last year. Violators of PPRA are BOI, WAPDA, CDA, NHA, CCP, SECP, SBP, Customs, EOBI,ECP, EPZA, FIA, MOI, FPSC, FOS, GPA, Islamabad HC, JPCL, MoH, MoInv, MoPA, MoIT, MoPriv, MoZakat, NIH, NSCS, PCB, PEPA, PHF, NLC, NIC, PID, Priv. Commission, and Utility Stores Corp. Pakistan needs to address the corruption with full political will, such as being demonstrated by Judiciary by at least declaring it under the Judicial Policy to be an organisation of Zero Tolerance for Corruption and Pakistan Armed Forces who have withdrawn its active senior officers from civilian postings and also successfully controlled violations of Procurement Rules 2004, which is confirmed from the AGP Report of 2008-2009 which has deducted corruption of Rs 323 Billion in FY 2008, and non in Armed Forces. However, TIP advises Ministry of Defence to issue directive to DHAs, MES, CB, CAA, HMCs, HIT, FWO & SoP to implement PPRA. Parliament shall immediately pass the act of Independent Accountability Commission. For across the board accountability (rated as the top most cause of corruption in NCPS 2010), as required under the United Nations Charter Against Corruption ratified by Pakistan in August 2007. Unless urgent measures are taken, the time is not far when Pakistan may also be equated to Afghanistan in corruption. Therefore the Rule of Law shall be brought back to Pakistan. TI Pakistan for the purpose of across the board accountability, fully endorses the views of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, that “Justice should be done let the heaven fall”, and also request with bonafide intentions the Judiciary to detest from culture of given stay orders against commercial contracts, which causes incalculable losses to exchequer and the nation as well. TIP is for the elimination of the accusations/allegations “Hire the Judge instead of Lawyer’. The Survey model prepared by TI in 2002 was used, and 24 page questioner was repeated to carry out surveys from 5.200 respondents from all the four provinces. The physical survey commenced in March 2010 and completed in May 2010. Other Findings of Pakistan National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 1. Police, Power, and Land are the most corrupt departments, and Taxation, Customs are the least corrupt sectors. 2. The three main reasons of corruption in view of our respondents were being, “lack of Accountability, Lack of Merit and low salaries. NAB has not taken any action against those responsible for Rs 323 Billion corruption reported by AGP and promised on floor of the Assembly by Minister of Law. 3. Introduction of motorway police has reduced corruption in the nation and about 87% of Pakistanis considered that Motorway Police should be established in all the four provinces of Pakistan. 4. A significant population has declined for the extension of civil servants and likewise it was a clear perception that arm forces retirees should not be given opportunity to work as civil servants. 5. Land allocation through allotment and auction seems quite equal. Nevertheless, auction still received higher weight. 6. Promotion of BPS 20 grade officers should be by Public Service Commission and not head of government, according to the people of Pakistan. 7. Judiciary & Armed forces should also come under the accountability check. 8. More than 80% respondents believe that Media’s freedom has contributed to expose corruption. 9. Almost 80% of Pakistanis consider that land records should be computerized and published.

Govt's corruption reaches Rs223b: TI

By: Mansoor Khan | Published: June 02, 2010

KARACHI – The National Corruption Perception Survey 2010 indicates that overall corruption in 2010 has increased from Rs195 billion in 2009 to Rs223 billion and 70 per cent Pakistanis say that the present government is more corrupt than previous government, said Transparency International Pakistan Chairman Syed Adil Gilani.
Addressing a news conference at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, he said most people considered the past federal government to be cleaner and added that this is quite similar if we look at the response towards provincial governments, except Punjab. However, if we look at the results from provinces from a standalone point of view, Punjab is the only province where present provincial government is rated to be cleaner than previous provincial government and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is rated as the most corrupt province, he said.
The survey pointed out that Police and Power Ministry maintained their ranking as the top two most corrupt sectors, and land administration is ranked as the third most corrupt sector. Corruption in judiciary, education and local government has also increased as compared to 2009, whereas FBR’s two departments, Customs and Taxation are ranked as the least corrupt sectors. In terms of bribery per act, land administration is rated as the most corrupt sector where each incident of corrupt act is Rs46,414 whereas the total bribery in other nine sectors is Rs127,728.
Gilani further said that corruption is the root cause of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism, shortage of electricity, food, etc., and lack of governance in Pakistan, and that the credibility of Pakistan is almost at the lowest level, which can be seen from almost no funding in last two years from the Friends of Pakistan trust fund being managed by the World Bank.
He said the most corrupt sector is Tendering which eats away at least 40 percent of Pakistan development budget, and this is confirmed from the recent results of Transparent tendering for transportation of sugar in Trading Corporation of Pakistan where TCP has saved at least Rs49.3 million by implementing Public Procurement Rules 2004, which is 40 per cent lower than cost of same work awarded last year. Violators of PPRA are BOI, WAPDA, CDA, NHA, CCP, SECP, SBP, Customs, EOBI, ECP, EPZA, FIA, MOI, FPSC, FOS, GPA, Islamabad HC, JPCL, M of Health, Ministry of Investment, Ministry of PA, Ministry of Information Technology, Ministry of Privatisation, Ministry of Zakat, NIH, NSCS, PCB, PEPA, PHF, NLC, NIC, PID, Privatisation Commission, and Utility Stores Corporation.

Pakistan needs to address the corruption with full political will, such as being demonstrated by judiciary by at least declaring it under the Judicial Policy to be a organisation of zero tolerance for corruption and Pakistan Armed Forces which also withdrew its active senior officers from civilian postings and have successfully also controlled violations of Procurement Rules 2004, which is confirmed from the AGP Report of 2008-2009. However, TIP advises Ministry of Defence to issue directive to DHAs, MES, CB, CAA, HMCs, HIT, FWO and SoP to implement PPRA. Parliament shall immediately pass the act of Independent Accountability Commission. For across the board accountability (rated as the top most cause of corruption in NCPS 2010), as required under the United Nation Charter Against Corruption ratified by Pakistan in August 2007. Unless urgent measure are taken, the time is not far when Pakistan may also be equated to Afghanistan in corruption. Therefore the rule of law should be brought back to Pakistan. Gilani said that TI Pakistan for the purpose of across the board accountability, fully endorses the views of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, that “Justice should be done let the heaven fall”.

Manzoor Ahmad Yousafzai