You are on page 1of 1

An interesting crossroads

The phrase may you live in interesting times is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936, no age has been fraught
with more insecurity than our present time, three years later the Second World War ravaged the world between 1939 and 1945. We in Pakistan have never ceased to live
through such times throughout our rather chequered history. Because of the geographical location and the consequent world politics that goes with it, our geopolitical situation
is
made
tenuous
because
of
religious
diversities
and
permutations
combinations
thereof.
Notwithstanding the economic potential of an area astride the Indus River descending to a fertile delta from the high Karakoram Mountains down to the Indian Ocean, rich in
agriculture and blessed with both minerals and skilled manpower, we are perennially in crisis, earthquake and floods aside mostly man-made disasters.
The hex on Pakistan is mainly because of the leaders we have been cursed with across the broad spectrum since the early demise of the Quaid in 1949 and the subsequent
assassination
of
his
close
aide,
Shaheed
Liaquat
Ali
Khan,
in
1951.
We continue to survive as a nation only because of the enormous resilience our people are blessed with. Even the bloody wake-up call we got in 1971 seemed only momentarily
to
distract
us,
thereafter
it
was
back
to
business
as
usual
of
perennial
bad
governance.
A history of incompetence and corruption is further complicated by less than three million out of 180 paying direct taxes. The economy remains under pressure because of
seriously deficient revenues, consider fully 70% of legislators in the last Parliament who imperiously imposed taxes on the people but were neither registered tax payers nor
paying
taxes
themselves.
The battle cry of the New Republic in 1776 no taxation without representation could be paraphrased for Pakistan as no taxation with representation. The leaders of two major
political parties are the richest men in the country, Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif till very recently paid less taxes than even the lowest salaried person in their own
employ
liable
to
pay
taxes.
Hiding of illegal wealth by misdeclaration and failure to pay requisite taxes is endemic as are fake credentials being used to enter parliament and preside over the destiny of the
nation. The many discrepancies in declaring their income and assets previous years should by itself be enough to disqualify most, if not all, the previous parliamentarians.
Enormous amounts of money are flowing out of the country, take for example the judgment in UK by Justice Hamblen recently in London on February 13, 2013 in favour of
complainant Deutsche Bank (Suisse) against Senator Gulzar Khan of PPP, his sons Senators Waqar Khan (for some time the Federal Minister for Privatisation and Investment)
and
Ammar
Khan,
Senator
Gulzars
wife
Razia
Sultana
and
their
daughter
Sehr
Asher
and
seven
off-shore
companies.
The judgment encompassing 73 pages includes mind-boggling amounts for purchase of the most expensive property in London in 2007, ultimately exceeding UK Pounds
Sterling 100 million (Rs 15 billion). The challenge for the ECP as a test case, how much taxes did these five billionaires pay in Pakistan, or the UK, i.e. if any, and pray what was
their need for setting up seven off-shore companies if not for money-laundering and to evade payment of taxes, either in UK and Pakistan?
The media as a champion of accountability is a joke, its greed has been correctly measured by those they in theory are meant to hold accountable. Details about the enormous
wealth transferred abroad (what to talk about their bank defaults) of many PPP stalwarts like Senators Gulzar, Waqar and Ammar, etc are not reported in Pakistan at all, or
made
public
as
these
should
be.
Badly compromised, our media does not venture asking inconvenient questions, can any in the print and/or electronic media (let alone the Supreme Court) dare question why
our topmost holder of public office, Asif Ali Zardari, refuses point blank to declare his assets as every public official should?
The immediate problem is to ensure free and fair translation of the wishes of the electorate on May 11. In 2002 the militarys favorites were maneuvered into public office, give
credit to Maj Gen (Retd) Ihtesham Zamir (then of the ISI), son of late Zamir Niazi (Press in Chains), for his moral courage in standing up and accepting his responsibility for
selectively
rigging
the
vote
for
favourites
on
Gen
Musharrafs
(albeit
illegal)
instructions.
While the 2008 electoral process was not interfered into by the army, it was so badly flawed that hundreds entered Parliament with fake educational qualifications and without
correctly declaring their income, sources thereof and assets. The present process of scrutiny of candidates was deliberately rushed to pressurize officials of the Election
Commission
of
Pakistan
(ECP)
in
the
field
to
accept
flawed
credentials
of
intending
candidates.
In a case reported as PLD 1984 Supreme Court (of Pakistan) Page 44, perjury is one of the most heinous social and moral offences. An offence punishable under the law as
stipulated under Section 194 PPC, it is also against the injunctions of Holy Qur'an (Sura Al-Nisa: 135), an evil which tends to disrupt the very basis of social order and make a
mockery
of
the
judicial
system,
be
it
Islamic
or
otherwise.
Consider our uniformed young men in Swat, South Waziristan and elsewhere, as well as innocent civilians throughout the land, dying by the hundreds while frauds and perjurers
revel in the luxuries and trappings of power while lording over us as feudals. To quote TV anchor Talat Hussain, the greater the fraud the greater the reward in Pakistan.
Consider my article The Curse of Perjury of Jan 20, 2011. Art Buchwald immortalised US President Richard Nixon's famous "I am not a crook" phrase, maybe one day
President Asif Ali Zardari, who is certainly not a hypocrite at least and thus never uses the word "corruption" anywhere at anytime in any of his remarks or speeches anywhere
will say, "I am an honest man", but hopefully not under oath, telling lies under oath is a favourite (and profitable) pastime in South Asia, particularly in Pakistan.
A person giving or fabricating false evidence is liable to be punished with imprisonment for life or with rigorous imprisonment, extending to ten years and also be liable to fine.
Instead of getting entangled in legal technicalities proving the evidence as per our rather outdated and defective laws of evidence inherited from the British (who have long
since changed them), if prima facie the previous declaration of assets by the candidates and filing of related information differs substantially from that submitted presently,
evidenced
also
without
commensurate
increase
in
paying
of
taxes,
than
the
person
is
guilty
of
perjury.
Implementing Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, the acid test should be, would we want certified perjurers to rule over our nations destiny for another five years? Or will the
Supreme Court condone perjury under the Doctrine of Necessity for sustaining democracy come what may at all costs, even to the peril of the nation?
the writer is the chairman of Pathfinder group, Karachi, Pakistan and a security analyst

You might also like