KARACHI, Oct 20: It was corruption that split Pakistan into two in 1971, said Prof Dr M. Abdul Wahhab of the University of Chittagong at an international conference on corruption at a hotel here on Saturday.

Titled ‘Causes, consequences and control — perspectives from transitioning and transitioned states’, the event was organised by the Hamdard School of Law in collaboration with Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance, the Committee for Welfare of Prisoners and the Women Prisoners Welfare Society.

Making his presentation on ‘Political corruption in Bangladesh: the case of politicising constitution’, the professor said: “Political corruption is the manipulation and politicisation of democratic and other political institutions. To me corruption is nothing but to deny a person his own due share. The biggest political corruption in united Pakistan started in the 1950s when West Pakistan was declared one unit and the east wing the other. East Pakistan at the time consisted 56 per cent of the total population of Pakistan while the west side was around 44 per cent. But still both were considered as 50 per cent equals, which wasn’t the case.

“True democracy would give power to the majority but when that didn’t happen, the Awami League had a problem. Ultimately there was an army crackdown in the east wing and we all know the rest. Had the Awami League been given its due share, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would have been all for united Pakistan,” he said, adding that Bangladesh had amended their constitution some 15 times since 1972.

“Only the first, second, third, 12th and 15th amendments are still in existence while the eighth and 14th are in existence only partially. It’s all been done by the ruling party in order to remain in power. Only the ruling party won the four elections held during the 1990s and early 2000s in Bangladesh. On its part the Awami League held a 173-day strike. And when finally they came into power, they called the others unconstitutional and undemocratic.”

The director of the Collective for Social Science Research, Asad Sayeed, while presenting his debate on ‘Institutionalised corruption, impunity and victimisation’, said there was a big concern over spreading corruption, but there was very little being done about it. “Neeyat ka fuqdaan hai,” he said. “Corruption in Pakistan started some three days before the inception of the country in 1947. There was land grabbing through changes in the acquisition of the Land Act (1894) which says that all land is owned by the state but can be acquired for public, industrial and construction purposes. Now most of the property transaction is done in black money. It is not even mentioned in the books.

“There are such loopholes created to keep people from paying taxes and other dues. There are 47,500 companies registered under the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan but 39 per cent of them are not even registered with the Federal Board of Revenue . The bureaucracy, too, faces a lot in the form of petty corruption after its power was reduced considerably since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government and the two martial laws,” he said.Another speaker, Dr Nagulapalli Bhaskara Rao, chairman of the Centre of Media Studies (CMS) in India, read out his paper titled ‘Corruption: causes, consequences and control’.

Giving the Indian perspective, Dr Rao said the concept of the National Accountancy Bureau and ombudsmen here impressed him a lot. “Pakistan is a decade ahead of India for endorsing the United Nation’s resolution on corruption,” he said.

“The focus should be on the steps required to address the issues posed by corruption within the general public. The public, too, should voice its concerns against corruption whether in politics, military or the judiciary. There is no longer a ‘we’ but ‘I’ that must be addressed here. So there should be elections at different levels to know what’s working and what’s not and keep your fingers on the pulse of the nation for perception being spread through the media can be much higher than the actual experience,” he said. In his talk, NAB chairman Fasih Bokhari said there were some 49 instruments of law addressing the issue of accountability and yet there was an impression that NAB was becoming a political tool. “So we are asking the government to amend it and bring in safeguards to not let us become politically biased,” he said.

“NAB’s focus today is to work with 14 different ministries to see the flaws in their regulatory mechanism as we have to go across the board to strengthen them not just at the federal level but provincial, too. This is a battle which we can never win but only curb through prevention of corruption.”

Prof Akmal Wasim, associate professor Hamdard School of Law and lawyer of the Supreme Court, spoke on ‘Combating corruption and corrupt politics: a case study of Pakistan’s statutory laws’. He shared a survey conducted on the rule of law.

Earlier, retired Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, chairperson of the Committee of Welfare of Prisoners and dean of Hamdard School of Law, in his keynote address gave an overview of corruption in Pakistan. “It is stated in the Global Competitive Report that corruption is slowing the economic progress of Pakistan, which is ranked 124th of the 144 countries for corruption,” he said.

Tracing the history of corruption in the subcontinent, he said that 2,400 years back, the local Hindu ruler permitted imported goods to be exempted from taxes. “So the main causes of corruption are colonial legacy, dictatorship and the judiciary.

Financial and political corruption is deeply entrenched at all levels of the government in Pakistan, which is progressively being increased over the years. It is reported to be the highest in public projects, bank loans, procurements and local and government institutions. The losses incurred by the government of Pakistan on account of corruption are reported to be Rs200 billion per annum in the Pakistan Exchequer. Since 2009, since the judiciary was restored in Pakistan, the government has initiated trials in the Supreme Court with what is termed as ‘grand corruption’,” he said.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Brian Pinkowski, an anticorruption expert from East Timor/United States, Dr Geo-Sung KIM, chairperson and founding secretary-general of the Transparency International, Korea, Amina Khan, senior research fellow at Mahbubul Haq Centre, Prof Rasul Bakhsh Rais of the Department of Social Sciences at LUMS and Syed Adil Gilani, adviser to Transparency International Pakistan, with experts from Sri Lanka, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

The conference concludes on Sunday.