Unscrupulous businessmen responsible for corruption

By Siddiq Baluch

Day in and day out, there are stories about corruption in the newspapers. The mainstream media target a special breed of politicians whom it hates for reasons known to all. The mainstream media took a specific position since the PPP came to power making it the target of all the ills of the country condoning the crimes against the state and the society by the military dictators and other despots in the past.

Only committed people who wanted to serve the masses participated in politics for which they were ready to go to jail or offer supreme sacrifices for their people and not for personal gains.

With the dismissal of the Khawaja Nazimuddin Government at the Centre by Malik Ghulam Mohammad, a British trained bureaucrat and the late Governor-General, politicians were dislodged from power for ever and the civil and military bureaucracy ruled this country to this date assigning secondary role to the politicians.

All the important and strategic decisions, right or wrong, of the State are taken by the civil and military bureaucracy. Politicians are mere onlookers and not involved in the decision-making on all sensitive issues.

The bureaucracy was approached by the unscrupulous business people and offered them share in the loot and plunder. Thus a special breed of businessmen and traders was created to bring a bad name for Pakistan in the whole world through dubious trade and business deals with foreigners.

Since the bureaucracy got its share, it kept mum allowing the unscrupulous traders to continue their nefarious trade at the cost of Pakistan and its poor people.

The role model of special breed of politicians within the pro-establishment camp is a few families who made their big fortune by misusing the official powers and minted hundreds of billions in two to three decades.

One of the top political family had assets of less than Rs 50 millions and now the same family is possessing financial assets of hundreds of billions in less than two decades. It was made possible only by misusing the official powers only.

No businessman of modest or moderate means can amass such a huge amount of money in two decades without using dubious means. In one of the sugar crises, the same family earned a windfall profit of Rs 40 billions within weeks and the sitting Government, headed by a military dictator, was helpless.

All the genuine businessmen based in Karachi, particularly the Gujrati speaking traditional businessmen, were pushed to the corner as they had no links with the Urdu or Punjabi Speaking bureaucracy wielding all the state powers in the Federal Capital. A score of them left the country and established their business in the Persian Gulf sensing the danger as back as in 1970s.

Now this special breed of business people is participating in politics, directly or indirectly. Thus purpose is to loot and plunder and not to serve the masses. Late Mohammad Khan Junejo did a great disservice to the people by introducing MNA and MPA development fund. Thus he formally and officially made politics as a business. Everyone is spending tens of millions in his elections in the hope to earn hundreds of millions, to say the least.

Obviously a million donation offered for the party or the party chief. The corruption in all walks of life is merely because of the dishonest and corrupt businessmen who offer bribe at all level only to earn more. Businessmen are least interested in the country, its integrity, sovereignty or development. They are more interested in minting quick money only.

The business people imported plant machinery for hundreds of industrial units in the garb of scrap only to deny customs duty and other tax to the Government. If one goes into the record of the importing scraps in the Punjab, the real secret of its rapid industrialization, then he will find most of the industrial units and its machinery imported in the cover of scraps. Thus corruption is deeply rooted in the Pakistani society and it is impossible to check it in foreseeable future.

Only a bloody revolution can change this attitude of loot and plunder.

It is deplorable that the Government in power is in league with the corrupt businessmen and dishonest industrialists manipulating the prices of sugar, cement, flour and other goods of essential use providing a chance to earn billions in days and weeks and not in years.

The recent sugar and flour crises are two classic cases of loot and plunder. The products are indigenous and Pakistani and traders claimed that the international prices had gone up thus they are justified to loot and plunder by creating artificial crisis or shortage in the market through hoardings.

It is unfortunate that the entire Pakistani State was helpless in busting the artificial shortage of sugar. The Supreme Court was virtually humiliated by the Sugar cartel simply refusing to bring the supply in the open market. The more powerful cartel refused to sell sugar at Rs 40 per kilo. The cartel comprised of the most powerful politicians in the Government and opposition. It is impossible to defeat the cartel comprising of unscrupulous businessmen and industrialists who give more importance to their windfall profit while they render a lip service to the 170 million Pakistanis.

There is no remedy to the economic, social and political ills of Pakistan without eliminating the unscrupulous business people who had hired the services of the entire state machinery or the Pakistani establishment, to say the least.

The people have no scope as long as the unscrupulous businessmen and industrialists are buying their seats in the Parliament and join the ruling coalition for fleecing the people.