When, ten years ago in Karachi, several ‘finance companies’, disguised as ‘Islamic banks’, milked thousands of middling depositors dry, Zia ul Haq wasn’t too bothered. Later, he calmly wrote off billions in bank loans to political cronies, friends and relatives. However, when PM Junejo stepped out of line, he was sacked for being ‘corrupt and inefficient’.
Benazir Bhutto cannot count herself as ‘lucky’ as her predecessor. When she began to spread her wings, President Ishaq booted her out citing much the same reasons, but went one step further. He also filed disqualification references against her in special courts for allegedly misusing privileges of office.
Mian Nawaz Sharif, of course, need fear no such unjust retribution from his mentor, even as anguished thousands now become victims of Co-ops in the biggest scan yet. Apparently it matters two hoots to the President that his PM, interior minister and many other IJI politicians are responsible for the current financial mess by ‘borrowing’ billions from cronies in these finance societies. Perhaps the President’s views are echoed by his law minister who wonders what the hoo ha is all about when “depositors are largely crooks who deserve what they have got”.
Bhutto has levelled serious charges against the President and PM. The current Co-op crisis originated when Mr Sharif was CM Punjab: one errant financier is an IJI MPA who admits paying Rs 26 million for an IJI ticket; the wife of a Punjab IJI minister is seriously involved; the Auditor-General, Punjab, noted financial misappropriation and embezzlement of billions in Sharif’s government last year; Sharif was one of the biggest borrowers (Rs 300 millions) from one Co-op.; the interior minister Ch Shujaat, the PM’s cousin Javed Shafi, IJI Minister Pervez Elahi’s father Manzoor Elahi, IJI MPA Malik Sadiq — were all recipients of Co-op largesse.
It is also alleged that the Mians misused the powers of high office. For example, they bought at least 400 acres of land in Chunian in 1986 just before land prices shot up when it was declared a duty-free industrial estate; the import duty on scrap iron was recently reduced from Rs 1500 per ton to Rs 500, thereby allowing a windfall profit of Rs 500 million to the Ittefaq Group at the expense of the public sector’s Karachi Steel Mills; Indus Motor Co was victimised to bolster the prospects of the Honda Motor plant being set up by the PM’s family.
Ms Bhutto says President Ishaq is guilty of nepotism and willful negligence. Why, for instance, was a foreign national, now at the centre of the BCCI scandal, allowed to purchase an oil company? Why were loans to the President’s son-in-law written off and why were the Gokals (of BCCI notoriety) handed untendered shipping contracts when Ishaq Khan was the financial Czar of the Zia regime? Why was another son-in-law, after being drummed out of a multi-national, appointed Advisor to the Sindh CM and how has he suddenly become si rich?
We are entitled therefore to ask Islamabad, first, why is there no effective mechanism to guard against such crooked excesses by the private sector? Second, why are politicians allowed to take undue advantage of office to enrich themselves at the cost of the public exchequer?
The PM has been decidedly gungho about the virtues of private banks. Admittedly, some new banks will be run professionally by eminent businessmen. But what is to stop others from playing a political role in times to come by covertly funding the electoral campaigns of their current benefactors? There is already evidence of considerable hanky-panky in the selection of some of the new owners. Of the ten new sanctions, the PM vetoed the objections of the Selection Committee of the State Bank to five. In at least one case, a former BCCI manager with less than professional credentials was accommodated at the last minute. Furthermore, the finance ministry infringed its own prescribed criteria by allowing certain industrial giants to sneak into the financial sector.
How, then, will the public’s interest be safeguarded? Both the President and the Prime Minister have always been quick to draw their guns when their political interests are at stake — witness, for example, the indecent haste with which a number of ordinances and the 12th amendment were passed — but stern laws to combat financial misappropriation or misuse of governmental powers are nowhere on their agenda.
The President’s stony silence may be construed as an admission of culpability just as much as the prime minister’s ‘I don’t give a damn’ approach. Sadly, the loss is entirely ours, the public’s. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the judiciary — special courts, Ombudsman et al — is not in the least inclined to take suo moto notice of all these corruptions around us.