The government has decided to set up an Assets Inquiry Unitin the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the assets owned by politicians, government officials,their families and others who live a luxury life purportedly incompatible with their sources of income. The FIA has already issued a notification to all its circulars and zones to proceed with the work.
This is not the first time that an inquiry has been planned against the government officials.A similar exercise was made during President Yahya Khan’s regime when a list of senior bureaucrats was made and at least 250 of them were drummed out on the charges of corruption.This kind of exercise had also been repeated in the later years in one way other the other. President Zialul Haq started an accountability process but only to witch-hunt his political opponents and the same method was applied during the previous governments of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party. In his third term, the Nawaz government has again come up with a plan to rein in the corrupt officials on the lines which had already proved to be a futile exercise.The fact remains that corruption has not only multiplied, but also institutionalized with every passing day.
More or less, corruption prevails in every country of the world and several methods have been applied and experiencedto curb this menace. In Malaysia, kickbacks in the government contracts have been legalized to stop corruption and maintain the standards of goods and services from the private sector. It proved to be successful, not 100 percent, but at least at the acceptable level.
No doubt corruption has crossed all limits in Pakistan and now the citizens themselves have been acclimatized to become part and parcel of corrupt practices. The payment of bribe through agents is the easiest way to get your job done. Corruption has written a new history in some government departments leaving far behind the Police Department which was notorious for its handling of public matters. If the government really wants to rid the nation of corruption, it should depoliticize the police, FIA, and other security and investigation departments. Another point which the government should take into account to make easiest procedures to facilitate citizens. The bureaucracy should understand that this is also their country and the people are their own people. Corruption takes its root when a complicated procedure is adopted for a simple matter.