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EDITORIAL (June 28 2009): Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has voiced deep concern over Pakistan's accountability institutions being almost on the verge of collapse, and has called for improved enforcement of Public Procurement Regulatory Rules and effective working of Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) to combat corruption in public sector spending.

TIP chairman Syed Adil Gilani, speaking at the annual members' meeting at a Karachi hotel, disclosed that TIP has been trying to sell the idea of PPRR for adoption by provincial governments, and has also been pressing for the establishment of PPRAs in all the provinces to fight corruption. Utilisation of the huge PSDP and other budgetary allocations made by the governments in development and non-development spheres, need to be regulated through a transparent mechanism for the procurement of goods and services.

Elahi Baksh Soomro, a former Speaker of the National Assembly, while speaking on the occasion has claimed that corruption in Pakistani politics emerged in the wake of the 1958 martial law and prior to that, no Pakistani Prime Minister was corrupt. According to him, martial laws and military regimes have, in fact, laid the foundations of corruption in the country, because they had to pick up politicians to become what he called their "front men," with a view to gaining legitimacy.

Soomro has rightly observed that the cancer of corruption could be combated only through good governance. Arshad Zuberi, TIP trustee, said that TIP must seek the support of parliamentarians for the implementation of public procurement rules, and also convince them for the establishment of accountability bodies.

Exemptions are justified in exceptional cases where secrecy has to be observed. However, exempting Wapda and the Ministry of Defence from engaging in commercial activities might not be justified. Engr. M.A. Jabbar, chairman of SITE said the present taxation system negates the spirit of the Constitution, which requires the executive to be separated from the judiciary.

But in taxation, the prosecutor is also the adjudicator, and the Finance Bill presented by Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar manifests the worst examples of amendments, whereby judicial forums are being tamed by the executive machinery. Whatever its causes and motivations, corruption and embezzlement in the public and private sectors, in its myriad forms and guises, including "commission" (which has since gained respectability), has come to be almost accepted as a way of life in the country, which is very unfortunate.

There is a need to distinguish between bureaucratic corruption, which can be likened to only a "small change" as compared to the perceived mega corruption in the higher echelons of power. The TIP meeting in Karachi seems to have focused on bureaucratic corruption, which, incidentally, is a result of the institutional decline occasioned by bouts of non-representative rule in our country, though the so-called representative dispensations have, at times, been no less guilty of pursuing questionable agendas at the cost of the long-term interests of the country.

Almost every government in Pakistan, whether representative or non-representative, has claimed "accountability" and the provision of prompt and inexpensive justice as its major goal, and has used the dragnet to catch the corrupt elements, though they have mostly succeeded in netting only the small fish. Secondly, the first target of all non-representative governments in the country, as elsewhere in the Third World, has been the Constitution, which lays down parameters for the functioning of state institutions, and also regulates the conduct of holders of public office.

There have been instances where even the elected holders of public office committed gross legal and constitutional transgressions, causing no less harm to the country. The modus operandi has been to create a legal or constitutional vacuum in which to operate. Widespread tax evasion and misuse of bank loans have been the most visible forms of financial corruption in Pakistan. According to a rough estimate, the annual tax evasion in Pakistan amounts to around Rs 218 billion.

Another revealing statistic is that about 90 percent of all defaulted loans are concentrated among a small number of influential individuals and families in the top 10 category. Ironically enough, loan write-offs, termed by some as "a bank robbery," have come to be accepted as a fact of life. This is one side of picture. On the other side are those living below the poverty line whose number is said to have mounted to over 50 million. Obviously, they are the victims of the free run on national resources.

Such distortions have generated most of the problems we are facing today. Good governance implies a capacity to turn public income into human development outcomes - a yardstick we have yet to measure up to. The most effective antidote against corruption, whether bureaucratic or non-bureaucratic, is good governance and rule of law, while selective application of law and favouritism lie at the root of all that ails Pakistan today.

Systemic weakening and erosion of national institutions over the years has done incalculable harm to the country. This is a major reason why institutions of accountability in Pakistan are on the verge of collapse today, as pointed out by TIP. There is an urgent need to curb the element of discretion. Corruption and misgovernance will automatically disappear.

KARACHI (June 26 2009): Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) is worried that institutions of accountability are on the verge of collapse in the country. This was stated by TIP Chairman, Syed Adil Gilani at the annual members' meeting held at a hotel here the other day.

Speaking on the scourge of corruption in Pakistan, he said the instruments which TIP considered necessary tools to combat corruption in public sector were the enforcement and implementation of Public Procurement Regulatory Rules (PPRR) and effective working of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) itself. He said TIP had been trying to sell PPRR for adoption by provincial governments and asking for the installation of PPRA in all the provinces.

"Sindh has already signed a MOU in this regard and the Punjab is our next target. We are trying to convince the government that major corruption in public procurement could be restrained by transparency which is available in the PPRR," he said.

The huge Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and the overall budget spent by the government on all the development and non-development spheres needed to be founded on transparent procurement of goods and services, he said. "NAB ordinance needed reforms and there appears to be reforms but there still appears to be no consensus among parties for giving birth to effective accountability establishment," he observed.

Gilani said TIP was worried about the continued exemptions for PPRR and also equally worried that in the absence of any accountability body, the whole country would have to be witness to misuse of resources. The absence of any venue for taking cognisance of misuse would also be a disaster for the country's future to improve its rating in the transparency and become a nation with least questionable conduct of its performance which was evaluated by least corruption in the country, he added.

Elahi Buksh Soomro, ex-speaker and member advisory committee of TIP said he had often heard that most of the politicians were corrupt, so there was need to analyse the situation about corruption, adding that he was convinced that corruption in politics emerged after martial law of 1958.

"I can say it for the brevity that no prime minister prior to 1958 martial law was corrupt," he said and took the names of all those prime ministers and asserted that they carried no stains and were noble men. According to him martial laws and military regimes laid the foundation for corruption because they had to pick up from amongst the politicians to become their front men who bartered this favour for being allowed to make money.

At a later stage these politicians when elected opted to first collect money which they spent on elections and later on for further and following elections. On the basis of his experience, Elahi Buksh Soomro said the 90 percent of the parliamentarians did not know what they were doing and so the ministers relied on bureaucracy. "We need good bureaucracy as a solution for governance and eliminating wide scale corruption we are confronting," he added.

He said, "People representing people should be responsible to people and probably the activity of civil society would be best seen if we were to spend enough on social sector which includes education and health." Arshad Zuberi, Trustee, TIP and Deputy Chief Executive, daily Business Recorder participating in the discussion said TIP must apprise parliamentarians and seek their support for the implementation of public procurement rules and convince them for the establishment of accountability bodies.

The World Bank had been very receptive to PPRR and the country should be proud of it, he added. He criticised the Ministry of Finance for having access to allowing exemptions on projects for observing the Rules. He said in exceptional cases where secrecy had to be observed exemptions were justified but exempting the WAPDA and the Ministry of Defence engaged in commercial activities might not be justified.

Engr. M. A. Jabbar, Chairman of the SITE Association of Industry, who has also been inducted as Trustee of TIP, said institutional framework for combating corruption needed to be examined with an outlook for a solution. "We must think about as to how the accountability institutions should be founded which are influence-free and which provide us reasonable assurance against plundering of domestic resources," he added.

He said, "Embezzlements have led us to look outward for managing the affairs of the government." He said, "Non-performance, non-judicial and highly questionable working of accountability bureau and now FIA and provincial anti-corruption agencies are due to non-tenure positions of the functionaries." Merit alone should be the yardstick for recruitment and functionaries should depend on the system evaluated performance instead of relying on godfather politicians or unscrupulous bosses who would play hell with them if they were to take up independent investigations, influence-free and without dictation, he suggested.

"We must sell to the legislators that they should consider themselves for fair treatment being for both treasury and opposition. If this advocacy works out, then the politicians may live to reality and give effect to the birth of accountability bureaus, which will be influence-free and independent with functionaries working their way on merits with constitutional guarantee of job and assurance of tenure postings."

Referring to the finance bill, he said the changes in the statutes affect the business and most of the time enhance discretion of bureaucracy and tax officials. "We have already identified the reasons of corruption contributed by discretionary powers and misuse thereof," he added.

Engr. Jabbar said, "The present taxation system negates the Constitution which requires executive to be separate from judiciary. In taxation the prosecutor is adjudicator and the present finance bill has manifested the worst examples of amendments whereby judicial forums are being tamed by executive machinery." He said.

"The present finance bill announced by the Minister of State for Finance surprised everybody. It says that tribunals are barred from taking decisions with regard to interim relief against coercive actions of tax administration." How come the tax laws could talk of limiting the jurisdiction of high courts, he questioned. He suggested that TIP should also discuss the tax laws as well as finance bill.

Wajid Jawad, member advisory committee, TIP fully supported the suggestion and sought the concurrence of members to accept his proposal. Barrister Shahida Jamil favoured an independent body for accountability. Others who spoke sought discussion on possible ways and means to stop questionable transactions in stock exchanges and suggested discussions on how to regulate capital markets.

The Annual Meeting of Transparency International (TI) Pakistan, was held last evening at a local hotel in Karachi.

The meeting was attended by members TI Pakistan as well as the board of trustees. New trustees that were elected to the board were introduced by the chairman at the start of the meeting. Those who were given membership included Justice (R) Haziqul Khairi, ex-Chief Justice of the Shariat Court, Justice (R) Dr. Ghous Mohammad, ex-Justice of Sindh High Court, Engr. M.A. Jabbar, Chairman SITE Association of Industries, Sohail Muzaffar, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and industrialist Javed Farooq.

A presentation was delivered by Saad Rashid to inform the gathering of the organisation’s activities during the past year. This was followed by a presentation on the Anti-Corruption Project Pakistan Phase II. Syed Adil Gilani presented the highlights of the NCPS 2009 and Advocacy and Legal Advice Center (ALAC), describing the challenges that were faced.

The executive director presented the audited report of the period ending from June 2008 followed by the budget for the next financial year. He also presented the strategic plan for the period 2008-2011 as well as answered the queries of the members on the audit report, budget and strategic plan.

At the conclusion of the meeting, an open forum was held where members exchanged their views and offered their suggestions on the various issues discussed. They also presented their views on how TI Pakistan should tackle corruption in the country.

ISLAMABAD (June 03 2009): The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has decided to issue show-cause notice to Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) for providing extraordinary favour to Abbas Group in provision of billets, according to official documents obtained from the Commission.

"Based on the documentation provided to the Commission as well as analysis done on the NOR data taken from the PSM website, it appears that the allegation that a large allocation of billets, specifically of category SAE 1008, SAE 1010 and WRS is being made to Abbas Group at the expense of other customers of said billet is true," the Commission said in its inquiry report.

The CCP took suo motu notice of shortage/problems in the provision of steel billets by PSM based on articles in the media on 12-14 February 2009. The issue had also been submitted to the Commission in the form of a complaint by Frontier Foundry (Pvt) Limited on 18 February 2009.

"Over-allocation of billets to Abbas Group has had ramifications on the workings of many re-rolling mills in Pakistan as PSM is their primary source of material. The shortage of material has forced many of them to reduce operations and lay off workers," the Commission further observed. In view of the foregoing, it is concluded that PSM is prima facie abusing its dominant position and is in contravention of section 3(3)(g) and (h) as it has refused to deal with purchasers in relation to low carbon steel billets, despite its own admission that it was holding considerable raw material and finished goods and by doing so, excluded " other undertaking(s) from the production, distribution or sale of any good", in this case, downstream products made from steel billets.

According to documents, there has been a protest by local consumers of steel billets who, despite having offered to buy the product at Rs 5,000 more than the price at which they were being sold to certain buyers, were still not given the raw material. As per another news item, the former chairman of the Association has been quoted as saying that "only 6 to 8 rolling steel mills out of 63 are operating in Karachi these days while others have temporarily stopped work owing to shortage of raw material."

Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has also expressed concern over the fact that PSM is "not selling its products in a transparent way and is unnecessarily delaying rise in the prices of billets for reasons best known to it."

According to the news item, TIP "has also accused the PS of not fulfilling the transparent procedure for the sale of MS billets. Some PS officials are favouring a company by supplying and allocating extraordinary quantity of billets. As a result, other dealers and re-rolling mills are deprived of getting billets."

This, apparently, is a violation of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between PSM and TIP in 2004, and much correspondence can be noted on the TI-Pakistan website. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister on 10 February 2009, the complainant raised the following facts:

a) PSM is the only blast furnace in Pakistan. No other source in Pakistan is capable of producing the quality billets that PSM manufactures;

b) The appointment of a new Chairman of PSM in May 2008 has resulted in undue favouritism towards one particular group - Abbas Group;

c) Prices of billets were reduced on 26 November 2008 and billets of grades SAE 1008 and SAE 1010 were exclusively being allocated to the Abbas Group.

d) Taking advantage of the complete allocation of billets to it, Abbas Group has become the sole provider of wire rods 10 in the country and, as a consequence of this monopoly, is charging exorbitant rates for them.

e) Wire rod and steel bar manufacturers have been given the impression that the government would levy regulatory duty on imported raw material. This has resulted in a catch-22 situation, wanting to take advantage of the low prices of PSM after 26 November 2008 and not getting the required billets on one hand and not being able to import due to the implied threat of paying duty on imported raw material.

The matter of regulatory duty was also mentioned in the newspaper, which quoted PSM.s Director Marketing as saying that "Though we have written to the government in this regard yet so far no duty has been imposed on these products.

f) Information pertaining to the sale of billets and other material was noticeable during 2008 as PSM was making all relevant allocation information (NORs) available on its website. However, PSM stopped putting this information on its website in December 2008.

15. The complainant also submitted allocation data for the period between 6 September 2007 and 4 December 2008. PSM began updating NOR data from 9 February 2009 onwards and NORs for several days in February and March 2009 was also provided. NOR information for last week of March and early April 2009 was monitored by the Inquiry Officer.

"Ensuring the competitive process is a matter of public interest, as the law is underpinned by the notion that competition serves as a powerful means to achieve a desirable public end. By refusing to deal with purchasers of its materials and thereby excluding them from production, distribution or sale of any good, it is recommended that show-cause notice under section 30 of the Ordinance should be issued to PSM," recommends Ahmed Qadir, Director Investigation.



Steel industry rejects 15 percent regulatory duty on flat rolled products
Business Recorder May 11, 2009

LAHORE (May 11 2009): Pakistan Steel-line Pipe Industry Association (PSPA) has rejected the proposed imposition of regulatory duty at the rate of 15 percent on all flat rolled products which are used as raw material for manufactures of steel welded pipes.

Pakistan Steel-line Pipe Industry Association (PSPA, Muhammad Usman, said at a press conference here on Sunday that Pakistan Steel Mills had admitted several times that it could meet only 20 percent of the country's steel demand and the remaining 80 percent was being imported. Members of the Pakistan Steel Line Pipe Industry Association and also other manufacturers of pipes import 75 percent of the flat rolled products and 70 percent of flat rolled products produced by PSM are being lifted by the pipe manufacturers and as such they were the biggest stakeholders of the flat rolled products in Pakistan.

He said that the number of industries involved in steel pipe manufacturing was more than 100. Total investment of this sector was around Rs 40 billion. He said consumption of flat rolled products by pipe manufacturer is about 70,00,00 tons in Pakistan. Export of pipes to the tune of Rs 6 billion was also being made by manufacturers of pipes presently and there is a great scope for its enhancement. He said there is a 10,000-strong labour force involved in this sector and 40,000 labour force in the allied industry.

He said that recently China had announced 15 percent export rebate on steel pipes and for HR flat products no export rebate was applicable. C&F Karachi port prices of steel pipes and flat products, offered by China, are the same, he added.

He said since there is 10 percent import duty on flat products and 15 percent on steel pipes, so the imposition of 15 percent RD would increase the raw material duty from 10 percent to 25 percent and for the steel pipes it would remain 15 percent. So the steel pipe industry would not be able to continue their production.

He said that such step to impose RD was being taken to protect Pakistan Steel Mills only, without taking into consideration the disastrous effects which the pipe manufacturers would suffer.

The Pakistan Steel Mills was making huge profits in the previous 3 years but was now suffering losses due to poor governance, mismanagement and without the proper planning for making purchases of raw material. Similarly, production plans were wrongly made. Decisions were not taken at the proper time which gave rise to lot of malpractice and corruption with the result that PSM was suffering losses and now wanted to cover these by selling goods at higher price, he added.

He said that the international market of HR coils was now at $400 C&F Karachi which comes to Rs 32,000 without the addition of customs duties, sales and other taxes, whereas the sale price of Pakistan Steel Mill was Rs 47,500 without additional taxes. If taxes were added the price would be much more. This clearly indicates that PSM is not following proper policies to compete with international prices, he said.

Further he pointed that APSM was the only manufacturer of flat rolled products in Pakistan and after imposing the RD the import would not be feasible any more and PSM would have a monopoly to set any price and this would result in corruption and inflation for the masses.

He said it had been an inalienable and individual policy of Pakistan to assist the development of nascent engineering industry in Pakistan. In view of this policy, the Federal Government had already exempted customs duties in excess of 5 percent on HR coils, under Serial No-88 of SRO. 565(I)/2006 dated 05.06.2006, provided that such raw materials were not manufactured locally. It was submitted that the purpose of building tariff barriers, through the instrument of regulatory duty was invariably to afford protection to the local industry. Accordingly, regulatory duty should not be levied on such HR coils as were not manufactured locally.

He said that it was needless to recapitulate that the engineering industry was now the stepping stone to achieve industrial excellence, wherever progress in the industrial field was desired by any Government. He said that the industry has great faith and confidence that the government would not succumb to the proposal of some interested local parties to hit the engineering industry at its very roots.

KARACHI (May 11 2009): Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) has called upon the government not to dilute or repeal National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) through the proposed Accountability Law as it would adversely affect the existing framework for checking money laundering and also amount to a departure from the international commitment of Pakistan as a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).

As per the invitation to all stakeholders, extended by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, for improvement in the proposed Holders of Public Offices (Accountability) Act, 2009 Bill, the representative body of the banking industry - PBA - has pointed out that Pakistan is a signatory to the UNCAC; the Convention has also been ratified by the government and therefore the concepts, principles and provisions of the document have to be applied and implemented in the domestic legal and administrative frameworks in matters involving accountability and corruption prevention.

By ratifying the convention, the government of Pakistan has given a commitment to the States parties to apply and interpret the domestic law harmoniously with the provisions of the Convention and to improve existing domestic laws so as to bring the same in conformity with the consensus reflected in the Convention.

Our international commitment, says PBA, has the following salient aspects:

-- Government of Pakistan will endeavour to implement anti corruption measures both in public and private sectors;

-- There will be no exceptions or exclusions for any class or group from the mandate and scope of Accountability Law;

-- Prevention and awareness will be an integral part of accountability system;

-- Strict administrative and legal measures will be taken to check money laundering with proactive role of banks and financial institutions;

-- Professional bodies/associations will be assisted and encouraged to strengthen their accountability functions;

-- Meaningful international co-operation will be ensured in cases of corruption and fraud; and

-- Existing anti-corruption and accountability apparatus will be strengthened through legislative improvements, capacity building and enhanced resources.

PBA feels that the proposed accountability law bill reflects a significant departure from the UNCAC. In fact it amounts to halting the anti-corruption drive and practically ousting the accountability agenda from government priorities.

Further, says PBA, the proposed bill has a limited scope and therefore, would be highly inadequate to check corrupt practices, which are quite rampant. During the effective implementation phase of NAO, proper measures were taken by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to enquire, investigate, settle or prosecute corrupt practices.

There were nevertheless, says PBA, complaints of improper use of authority by some NAB officials which certainly needs to be confirmed. It may however, be mentioned that the banks, financial institutions and other bodies associated with financial or commercial activities referred cases of fraud, breach of trust and wilful loan default to NAB which were largely processed in an efficient manner resulting in recovery and settlements worth hundreds of billions.

The menace of imprudent lending substantially decreased due to adequate provisions in the NAO and a well defined mechanism to report and handle default cases under the supervision of State Bank of Pakistan. Cases involving fraud and other illegal acts concerning banks were finalised in a professional manner which hitherto was a distant cry.

Banks experience with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was never satisfactory and even disappointing in cases involving intricate issues. It would therefore be proper and desirable to further strengthen the financial crimes investigation expertise of NAB instead of dismantling the same, PBA added.

PBA said that the initiatives already taken to combat Money Laundering (ML) require proper enforcement mechanism, dilution of NAO or its repeal would frustrate all such measures and in addition to its adverse effects on the existing ML framework, Pakistan would also appear to have ignored its explicit obligations towards the international community. Mega scams in the form of Co-operative Societies Fraud, Illegal Housing Societies, sham forex companies, Double Shah Tactics resulted in colossal losses to the general public.

The volume, nature and complexities of such cases would have further aggravated the plight of innocent victims if action under the NAO had not been initiated. Recovery and compensation in this regard has helped in mitigating the difficulties of the public. It is unfortunate that no such mechanism is envisaged in the proposed Accountability bill. The ineffectiveness of Anti-Corruption Establishments (ACEs) and FIA in the past would again be a norm for such cases.

PBA emphasised that systemic corruption cannot be rooted out through traditional measures. Law has to evolve to counter the challenge through effective modern legislation in sync with legal development in other jurisdiction. NAO provides a mode of acquiring bank details of an accused, issues of secrecy cannot be used as an excuse to withhold vital information necessary for determining the truth, a similar provision is absent from the bill and reliance has been placed on the general law.

PBA reminded that the developing nature of the economy and the experience of breakdown of the financial institutions in the past coupled with public scams and pilferage of public funds necessitate the existence of a legal framework which ensures that public and private sectors operate in accordance with international best practices with accountability, transparency and integrity as their hallmark.

Finally, said PBA, it would be prudent and appropriate if the institution of NAB is retained, may be with a new name and style of Ehtisab Commission. Its effectiveness and impartiality is strengthened by making adequate improvements in the rules and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and weaknesses are cured to ensure across the board accountability. The state of recoveries and other settlements in cases including bank frauds, bank default and imprudent lending (Recovery till date: Rs 116.780 billion and Rescheduling/bank loans: Rs 67.47 billion).

We need to leap forward from these milestones through constructive measures and actions in the right direction, concluded PBA.

TI terms Holder of Public Office Act a continuation of NRO
Business Recorder April 30, 2009

The bill of Holder of Public Office (Accountability) Act-2009, which is supposed to repeal the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance-1999, is a vague bill, and is in fact a continuation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), according to Transparency International Pakistan (TIP).

TIP Chairman Syed Adil Gilani said on Wednesday that if this proposed law was made an Act of parliament, it will allow corruption to flourish and the corrupt to enjoy its benefits without fear of prosecution.

He said that the bill presented in the National Assembly was said to be in line with the demands agreed upon in the Charter of Democracy (CoD), but this was not the case.

“The CoD calls for the accountability of NAB and other ehtesab operators to identify and hold accountable the abuse of the NAB office by operators through perjury and perversion of justice and violation of human rights since its establishment. It calls to replace the politically-motivated NAB with an independent accountability commission, whose chairman shall be nominated by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of opposition and confirmed by a joint parliamentary committee, with 50 percent members from treasury benches and remaining 50 percent from opposition parties in same manner as appointment of judges through transparent public hearing,” he added.

The TIP chief said: “It is now widely accepted that corruption is the ‘cancer’ which has deprived Pakistan of rule of law for the last 60 years and has weakened the very foundation of the nation. It has limited the economic growth, hampered investment, and reduced the effectiveness of development programs, while diverting the important and scarce public resources towards private gains. This has caused militancy amongst the deprived youth, which is now threatening the very existence of the state.”

Syed Adil Gilani said foreign aid did not reduce terrorism in Pakistan nor strengthened Pakistan’s economy, as the USA aid of US$ 11 billion from 2001 to 2007 was misused and pocketed by corrupt rulers, and there has been manifold rise in the terrorism and frequent incidents of suicide bombing, which never happened in Pakistan before 2002.

“TIP demands from the parliament to immediately form an independent accountability commission, as committed by the main political parties to the nation to stop the abuse of public office for private gain, and the new commission shall also include the local government’s elected members like Nazim, councillors, government officers, armed forces officers, judiciary and private sector,” he said.

Syed Adil Gilani said that the proposed bill also did not meet the commitment given to the United Nations by the Government of Pakistan in August 2007 under United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which might create doubts in the donor countries/agencies about the will of the political government to fight corruption.

“Pakistan at this point of time needs to demonstrate to the world at least its willingness for the good governance, and has to ensure existence of independent body to prevent corruption by such means as implementing preventive anti-corruption policies and practices and, where appropriate, overseeing and coordinating the implementation of those policies; and increasing and disseminating knowledge about the prevention of corruption.

“Pakistan is also committed to inform the Secretary General of the United Nations of the name and address of the authority that may assist other states’ parties in developing and implementing specific measures for the prevention of corruption. This function at present is the responsibility of the National Accountability Bureau.

“The proposed Accountability Commission instead of being independent body is to be under the Ministry of Law and Justice. TI Pakistan suggests that the new organization, which is to replace NAB, has to be an independent accountability commission, and shall function independently as required under UNCAC, and be accountable only to the parliament or judiciary,” he concluded.

RAWALPINDI, May 6: The Transparency InternationalPakistan has launched an initiative aimed to create awareness of good governance among students. In this regard, a debate competition was organised at the International Islamic University on Wednesday. In its programme, Transparency International focused on the theme of ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Students from eight institutions participated in the competition. A total of 16 debaters spoke for and against the motion. The session was chaired by Prof Kaisera Alvi, the IIU student adviser. The participants presented lucid arguments to support their contentions. The first prize was won by Nafeesa Hadis of the IIU, the second by Hashim Mufti, (SEEC) NUST, while the third prize went to Hifsa Saeed of Fatima Jinnah Women University. Speaking on the occasion, Zakir Mohammad Johar, Director General of International Islamic University said students must fight against corruption as Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and poet philosopher Allama Mohammad Iqbal had always exhorted them, because they are the leaders of tomorrow. He advised the students to take part in wholesome activities to involve themselves in the community and become model citizens. Professor Dr A.H. Nayyar, research fellow, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, asked the students to strive hard to make the country corruption free. The judges of the competition were Kaneez Fatima, Dr Nayyar and Dr Mobina Talat. The competition ended with the distribution of prizes and certificates among the winners and participants.

ISLAMABAD (May 07 2009): Prime Minister's Secretariat has been informed that the in 'Shershah bridge collapse', apparently prepared by a six-member panel, was tampered with to save the skin of some 'heavyweight culprits'. "The inquiry report, prepared by the six-member inquiry committee and announced to public in February 2009, 17 months after the accident and 12 months after it was submitted to you, is under criticism.

Allegations of tampering with the actual contents of the report have been levied by one member of the inquiry team," said Transparency International Pakistan (TIP), in a letter to the Chairman of Prime Minister Inspection Commission (PMIC) inquiry committee, Lieutenant General Farooq Ahmad Khan (retired), a copy of which has also been sent to Minister of Communication, Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Chairman, NHA and DG, NLC.

On September 1, 2007, a major part of the Shershah Bridge collapsed, killing 10 people. On September 23, 2007, the (then) Federal Minister for Communication, Shamim Siddiqui, issued a statement that the inquiry of the incident was complete and would be shown to the media before Eid. This deadline was not met.

In the letter, clarifications have been sought from PMIC Chairman as to why only three members of the inquiry team had signed the report. Out of the remaining three, one member has expired, but the signatures of two other members are also missing from the report.

One of the three members of the committee who had signed the report, Advocate Nasir J R Shaikh, reportedly stated that the report has been tampered with, and the word "criminal" was omitted on page 51, in the third paragraph of the "findings and fixing responsibilities" section. This para was actually "criminal neglect on part of NHA in media".

Page 3 of the inquiry report contains the names of the other members of the inquiry team which is missing from the investigation report posted on the website. TIP has also cited a report according to which PMIC inquiry committee comprised of Dr Sahibzada Farooq Ahmed Raffiqui, Farooq A Chaudhry, Zafar Razzak (late), Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodhi, Farrukh Hassan Pasha, Munir Ahmed Rana, and a lawyer whose name was not disclosed. These six members, mentioned on page 1 of the inquiry team report, do not include Farooq A Chaudhry, who was the only design engineer in the committee with practical experience as a bridge designer and supervision consultant.

The reinforced cement concrete (RCC) core test results, reported in section 7.2.2 on page 47, state that "for concrete strength, however, split results are reported, where strength from core are much lower than the desired strength. In spite of the deficiency found by inquiry team, the report has not blamed contractor, M/s NLC.

Instead, the report in section 7.2.3 has tried to exonerate contractors' deficiency by stating 'as is evident from the report that diameters of cores were smaller than specified in ASTM C-42 and that the core drilling machine was producing vibrations during drilling, both these factors contributed towards the low strength indicated by core tests'."

These remarks cast doubts on the technical abilities of the inquiry team members on the core testing procedures, as the tests were performed under supervision of the inquiry team members, and in the NED University lab. Why and under whose orders correct size of core samples were not obtained by the committee? Though the TOR for inquiry team was also to make recommendations for avoiding such tragedies in future, the report does not contain fruitful and concrete recommendations for avoiding such accidents in future.

According to the TIP, in fact the committee members seem to be ignorant of the Tendering Rules, Public Procurement Rules 2004. The statement on page 57 confirms lack of knowledge of the committee members on the procurement laws in Pakistan.

BIDDING PROCESS: Process of biding should be reviewed in the light of best value procurement system, instead of the existing system and no hiring of contractors or consultants should be allowed without competitive bidding". The Procurement Rules under the Statuary requirements under SRO 432(I)/ 2004. - 9 June, 2004, in all federal government departments are:

20. PRINCIPAL METHOD OF PROCUREMENT: Save as otherwise provided hereinafter, the procuring agencies shall use open competitive bidding as the principal method of procurement for the procurement of goods, services and works.

ISLAMABAD (May 01 2009): The government will conduct special audit of privatisation deals of previous government, said Minister for Privation Naveed Qamar here on Thursday. Briefing the Standing Committee on Privatisation, the minister said the government has already ordered for carrying out a special audit of the privatisation transactions of the previous government.

A meeting of the committee headed by Malik Bilal Rehman was convened to have a briefing from the Privatisation Commission performance and functioning. The minister said the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) was directed to conduct special audit of privatisation of all the entities including Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

He said the AGP had completed this special audit and soon these reports would be published, which he committed would not only be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) but to the standing committee as well for scrutiny. Naveed apprised the members of the problems faced to the government on many like lack of clear land titles of many entities including the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).

He said that neither provincial governments nor entities had record of title transfers. The provincial governments were now demanding current commercial rates for transfer of titles, he added. Replying to a question of MQM member Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, the minister said he himself had apprehensions over the privatisation of the KESC and believes the deal was done on weaker terms.

He said the government has delayed the privatisation programme due to economic recession. He said although the privatisation policy aims at utilising 90 percent of the privatisation proceeds for debt retirement and 10 percent for poverty alleviation, but this policy was set aside in the recent past and the money was used to bridge the budget deficit.

The minister also briefed the meeting about the privatisation policy recently reviewed by the government, saying it would be on the line of public private partnership with only 26 percent share would be privatised.

Mamoona Hashmi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said it is the responsibility of elected members to inform the public about privatisation deals of the previous regime and losses incurred to the national exchequer owing to these deals.

Meanwhile, the standing committee unanimously recommended that comprehensive sale deed of the KESC and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) may be furnished before the committee in the next meeting, as the members wanted to know what sort of criteria was adopted in their transaction. The committee also recommended that each member from the National Assembly and Senate might be included in the Privatisation Commission Board through legislation.

ISLAMABAD (May 01 2009): The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has served a show cause notice on Pakistan Steel Mills for giving financial benefit to one group of re-rolling mills by increasing its allocation and denying this privilege to others. The show cause notice was served on PSM in what appears to be, prima facie, a refusal to deal on the part of the mill with many consumers/buyers of low carbon steel billets, said the CCP.

It is learnt that the complainant accused the top management of PSM of giving financial benefit to one group of re-rolling mills by increasing its allocation of wire-rod billets and denying others.

He said that PSM enhanced allocation of Abbas Group and reduced allocation of other re-rolling mills. Abbas Group owns three re-rolling mills-Al-Abbas Steels (Pvt) Limited, Abbas Steel Industries (Pvt) Limited and Abbas Engineering Industries Limited, which use MS bars and wire products, they added.

PSM has also reportedly provided wire-rod billets in October and November 2008 to Abbas Group while no other re-rolling mill was able to produce wire-rod. The monopoly of wire-rod of Abbas Group led to increase of wire-rod price substantially which in the case of equitable distribution would have been much lower.

While taking suo motu notice of articles in media as well as on a complaint submitted by Frontier Foundry Pvt (Ltd), the CCP said that much of the mill's production of billets was being allocated to a few undertakings collectively known as the Abbas Group, the Commission looked into the matter.

Based on media articles and information given by the complainant, the limited provision of billets to many consumers/buyers has had immense repercussions on the steel re-rolling industry such as reduced operating shifts and employee layoffs.

Despite the willingness on the part of consumers to pay premium prices for the billets, PSM has not provided the much-needed item in the quantities required. Based on an analysis of the allocation data, also known as notices of readiness, which the PSM is providing on its website, the Commission concluded that there was sufficient ground in the media stories and the allegation made by the complainant to issue a show cause notice to PSM. The hearing has been scheduled for May 19, 2009 in Islamabad, it added.

KARACHI (April 30 2009): Pakistan Steel has posted a loss of over Rs 13 billion in nine months of the current fiscal year. This has occurred for the first time in eight years due to global economic recession and ineffective policies, Business Recorder learnt on Wednesday. The steel producer had earned enough profits during year 2000-01 to 2007-08, but during the current year it has incurred losses due to low sales and import of raw material at high rates. The Mills is facing huge financial crisis due to consecutive losses in the current fiscal year, sources said. Financial documents made available to Business Recorder show that PSMC faced a loss of Rs 13.248 billion during July-March period of 2008-09 against 2007-08 profit of Rs 3.44 billion. Sources said that inefficient policies, purchase of raw material on high rates and low demand of steel products in the domestic market due to global economic meltdown were the major causes of the rising losses of the mills. They said that PSMC made a purchase agreement of raw material in April 2008, when the prices were at peak level. But after that the price of raw material like iron ore declined sharply in the world market. Despite reduction in the raw material prices, PSMC was not able to cancel or revise the already made contracts due to the likely legal action by the supplier of the raw material. Sources in PSMC confirmed that the mills losses had been gradually increasing and crossed level of Rs 13 billion just in nine months of current fiscal year. In July, 2008), PS posted a profit of Rs 367 million. However, in the remaining eight months, the mills posted huge losses. PS registered a loss of Rs 55 million in August 2008, Rs 200 million in September 2008, Rs 660 million in October 2008 and Rs 4.1 billion in November 2008. December 2008 losses amounted to Rs 2.5 billion, Rs 2 billion in January 2009, Rs 2 billion in February 2009 and Rs 2.1 billion in March 2009. Against this, during fiscal year 2000-01 the mills posted Rs 552 million profit, Rs 102 million in 2001-02, Rs 1.042 billion in 2002-03, Rs 4.852 billion in 2003-04, Rs 6.008 billion 2004-05, Rs 705 million 2005-06, and Rs 3.159 billion in 2006-07. Sources said that sales were also on decline since July 2008, which stood at Rs 5.1 billion in July last to Rs 2.9 billion in March 2009, due to reduction in the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) by the federal government and slow economic activities. They said that PSMC management adopted an ineffective marketing policy, which raised the losses of the mills. With the aim to reduce inventory and enhance sales, the PS management sold its products at under-cost, which also increased the losses, they added. They said that the prices of all products increased in the year 2008-09 comparing with the prices of 2007-08 except the billets which is being sold Rs 6,500 per ton less than the price of 2007-08. The re-rolling mills association also offered to pay Rs 5,000 per ton higher price in the presence of secretary ministry of industries. However, the mills did not change the prices of billet. They said that MS billet is the one of the products, which was being sold some Rs 30,000 per ton less than cost to earn revenue for meeting daily expanses. Meanwhile, several attempts were made for obtaining the version of PSMC management and after telephonic conversation PS spokesman assured that he would send their point of view in evening on fax. However, till the filing of story Business Recorder received no fax.

LAHORE, April 29: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo has said that government has decided to fix the prices of all products manufactured by Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in accordance with the international market. It will also dispose of its stocks by open auction. Speaking as the chief guest at the first Iron and Steel conference here on Wednesday the minister said that the decisions had been taken to bring transparency in the affairs of the PSM. The mills administration will not be allowed to review the prices of its products without the consent of the government. He said that it had also decided to increase the production capacity of PSM from 1.1 million tons to 5 million tons per annum. The government will award the contract for the expansion of the mills capacity by inviting international tenders, he added. He said that he would forward the proposal to the prime minister for inclusion of a representative of the industry on Pakistan Steel Mills board of directors. Pakistan Steel Re-Rolling Mills Association chairman Latif Chaudhry said that the steel industry had an installed capacity of 8 million tons per annum but was producing only 4 million tons. The PSM was producing only one million tons. The world consumed 1.4 billion tons of steel last year whereas in Pakistan consumption of steel was only 0.4 per cent. He said that the PSM price fixation and marketing policy required transparency but it was not ready to talk about it. It does not fix the prices of its products in conformity with the international market, he added. He said that the government should constitute a committee to ensure continuous availability of raw material and solve the problems of the steel industry using 10,000 to 12,000 tons of steel daily. He said that the government should not only reduce the high mark-up rate but also review the duty structure of the steel products, which had not been changed despite reduction in steel prices in the international market. The government should also increase vocational training facilities for providing skilled workforce to the industry, he added. Tuwairqi Steel director Zaigham Rizvi said that per capita steel consumption in Pakistan was only 30 kg per annum against 384 kg in China. .

KARACHI (April 28 2009): The bill of Holder of Public Office (Accountability) Act, 2009, to repeal NAB Ordinance 1999 is a vague bill, made only for the elected parliamentarians, excluding civil servants, local government members, and armed forces personnel, and is actually National Reconciliation Act, a continuation of NRO. The bill requires major modifications. It begins with wrong notion, as it defines the aim as to repeal the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and to enact new law of Accountability. The aim is for establishing an Independent Accountability Commission to eradicate corruption, as has been promised by major political parties in their election manifesto of 2007. Syed Adil Gilani, Chairman Transparency International Pakistan said that this proposed law if made an Act of Parliament, would allow corruption to flourish and the corrupt to enjoy its benefits without fear of prosecution. He said that the bill presented in the National Assembly is stated to be according to a demand agreed in the COD, but, this is not the case. The Charter of Democracy calls for accountability of NAB and other Ehtesab operators to identify and hold accountable abuse of office by NAB operators through purge and perversion of justice and violation of human rights since its establishment, and calls "to replace politically motivated NAB with an Independent Accountability Commission, whose Chairman shall be nominated by the Prime Minister in consultation with the leader of opposition and confirmed by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, with 50 percent members from treasury benches and remaining 50 percent from opposition parties in same manner as appointment of judges through transparent public hearing." It is now widely accepted that corruption is the 'cancer' which has deprived Pakistan of rule of Law since last 60 years, and has weakened the very foundation of the Nation. It has limited economic growth, hampered investment, and reduced the effectiveness of development programmes, and diverted public resources towards private gains. Poor became poorer, breakdown of democratic and administrative institutions. This has caused militancy amongst the deprived youth, which is now threatening the very existence of the state. Syed Adil Gilani said that foreign aid did not reduce terrorism in Pakistan nor strengthened Pakistan economy, as the US aid of US $11 billion from 2001 to 2007 was misused and pocketed by corrupt rulers, and there has been manifold rise in terrorism, and frequent incidents of suicide bombing, which never happened in Pakistan before 2002. TIP demands from the parliament to immediately form an Independent Accountability Commission, as promised by your parties to the nation to stop "the abuse of public office for private gain", and the new Commission shall also include Local Government elected members like Nazim, Councillors, Civil govt officers, Armed forces officers, judiciary, and private sector representatives. Chairman TIP said that the proposed bill also does not meet the commitment given to the United Nations by the Government of Pakistan in August 2007 under United Nation Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which may create doubts in the donor countries/agencies about the will of the political government to fight corruption. The proposed Accountability Commission instead of being independent body, is to be under the Ministry of law and Justice. TI Pakistan suggest that the new organisation, which is to replace NAB has to be an independent Accountability Commission, and shall function independently as required under UNCAC, and be accountable only to the Parliament or Judiciary.-PR

RAWALPINDI, April 27: The Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has described as vague Holder of Public Office (Accountability) Act, 2009, which will replace the NAB Ordinance of 1999. “The bill is made only for elected lawmakers, excluding civil servants, local government members, armed forces’ personnel and is actually the continuation of the National Reconciliation Act and requires major modifications,” Syed Adil Gilani, chairman of Transparency International Pakistan, said in a statement issued here on Monday. “It begins with a wrong notion as it declares that its aim is to repeal the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and to enact a new law of accountability. The aim is to estab lish an Independent Accountability Commission to eradicate corruption as has been committed by major political parties such as PPP, PML-N and PML-Q in their election manifestos in 2007,” the statement said.It said that the proposed law, if made an act of parliament, would allow corruption to flourish and the corrupt would enjoy its benefits without fear of prosecution. He said the bill presented in the National Assembly was stated to be meeting a demand agreed in the COD, but this was not the case. “The Charter of Democracy calls for accountability of NAB and other Ehtesab operators to identify and hold accountable abuse of office by NAB operators through perjury and perversion of justice and violation of human rights since its establishment, and calls for replacing politically-motivated NAB with an independent accountability commission, whose chairman shall be nominated by the prime minister in consultation with the Leader of Opposition and confirmed by a joint parliamentary committee with 50 per cent members from treasury benches and the rest from opposition parties, in the same manner as appointment of judges through transparent public hearing. “It is now widely accepted that corruption is the cancer which has deprived Pakistan the rule of law for the last 60 years and has weakened the very foundation of the nation. It has limited the economic growth, hampered investment and reduced the effectiveness of development programmes, and diverted the important and scarce public resources towards private gains, dictatorial rule of military and civilian rulers who spread illiteracy with poor becoming poorer and breakdown of democratic and administrative institutions. This has caused militancy among the deprived youth, which is now threatening the very existence of the country,” the statement said. The statement said that foreign aid did not reduce acts of terrorism in the country nor strengthened the country’s economy, as the US aid of $11 billion from 2001 to 2007 was misused and pocketed by corrupt rulers. The TIP asked parliament to immediately form an independent accountability commission, as committed by all major political parties to stop the abuse of public office for private gains and the new commission should have powers to hold accountable local government’s elected members like nazims, councillors, government officers, armed forces’ officers, judiciary and the private sector. The TIP chairman said that the proposed bill did not meet the commitment given to the United Nations by the Government of Pakistan in August 2007 under UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which might create doubts in donor countries/agencies about the will of the political government to fight corruption. He said that Pakistan needed to demonstrate to the world its willingness for good governance and to ensure existence of an independent commission to fight corruption.

LA KARACHI, April 26: The government is considering a proposal to establish public complaint cells in all districts of Sindh. The cells will be set up on the pattern of the Awami Complaint Cell (919) working at the Chief Minister’s House. They will function under the supervision of the DCO/DPO of the concerned district. This was stated by Sindh Minister for Works and Services Manzoor Hussain Wassan while receiving public complaints at the CM’s House cell on Sunday. The minister renewed the PPP’s pledge of serving the masses without any discrimination, and said that the government was taking all possible measures to address grievances of the common man. The minister issued on-thespot directives to the officials concerned for addressing the complaints conveyed to him by callers from the general public. Most of the complaints received on Sunday pertained to police, water and power and health departments.—APP

KARACHI (March 21 2009): Apropos a news item published in Business Recorder on March 18 captioned as "TIP accuses PS of non-transparency in sales", Abbas Steel Group has clarified that its business dealings with Pakistan Steel Mills are above board and it does not enjoy any exclusive treatment in the application of the policies of the Pakistan Steel Mills. As far as Abbas Steel Group is concerned it believes that all policies of Pakistan Steel Mills are uniformly applied to the different clients of Pakistan Steel Mills. As for the supply of Pakistan Steel Mills products, Abbas Steel Group has been receiving much less quota than what is required for running its units according to the installed capacity. These units were established as original downstream units of Pakistan Steel Mills almost twenty years back. It is worth mentioning here that the group runs two automatic plants out of five in the country that produce high quality value-added products of steel. Pakistan Steel Mills is a shareholder in one of the plants of Abbas Steel Group. These plants are the largest in terms of capacity and were designed and installed specifically for the consumption of Pakistan Steel Mills products. It has been clarified previously also and is being placed on record again that Riaz Lalljee in his personal capacity neither holds any executive position within the group nor is a shareholder in the company, although the business is managed by his family.-PR

ISLAMABAD, April 19: The National Judicial (policy-making) Committee resolved on Sunday that no chief justice or judge of any superior court will become acting governor of a province or hold any public office in future. The committee headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry noted with concern the trend among retired judges of superior courts to accept appointment to various offices and said it was below the status of a judge. It asked the government to stop making such offers and the incumbents reconsider if should remain in the position they were currently holding. The meeting stressed the need for better implementation of laws and provision of justice to deserving people. “The existing laws are sufficient enough but require proper implementation and if they are followed properly it will automatically streamline the system and provide justice to the people,” Justice Chaudhry said in his remarks on the last day of the two-day meeting. The meeting supported the proposal of the chief justice to declare the year 2009 as the ‘Year for Justice for All’ with focus on justice at the grassroots level. An official handout said: “The committee decided that in future no chief justice or a judge of superior court shall accept appointment as acting governor of the province, in the same way they will not accept appointment of any other public office in federal/provincial government.” The meeting recommended that the provision of the Constitution should be strictly followed which says: “A former judge of Supreme Court or a High Court should not hold the office of profit in the service of Pakistan, not being judicial or quasi-judicial office of the Chief Election Commissioner or of a chairman or member of the Law Commission or of chairman or member of Council of Islamic Ideology before the expiry of 2 years after his retirement.” The CJ said: “Therefore, no retired judge of the superior court shall accept an appointment of an ex-cadre post which is lower than his status, including banking court, customs court, central court, administrative tribunal and federal/provincial service tribunals, etc. “The government may relieve such judges and the judges should also consider resigning from their post. This will be a safeguard against judges of the superior courts as well as subordinate courts from being induced/influenced for appointment to such posts.” The committee recommended that the trend of retired judicial officers being appointed to special courts be also discouraged and as per the requirement of principle of independence of judiciary, qualified serving judges should be appointed to the posts, in consultation with the Chief Justice of High Court. The independence of judiciary and its separation from the executive and maintaining impartiality was a mandate of the Constitution, which shall be fully enforced, it stressed. The meeting took notice of increasing complaints of corruption amongst judicial officers and court staff and supported the policy of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to show zero tolerance for corruption. It was resolved that the high court would improve the present mechanism/procedure for initiating disciplinary proceedings against corrupt/inefficient judicial officers and the matter preferably should be taken up to the chief justice of the high court for prompt action against the corrupt/inefficient judges/court staff. The committee requested members of the bar and general public to submit credible evidence against such corrupt judges for prompt action. The meeting decided that a “cell for eradication of corruption from judiciary” under the supervision of the registrar of the respective high court shall be established. Complaints with credible evidence be forwarded to such cell and a copy thereof should be forwarded to the registrar, supreme court. The committee agreed to prepare a comprehensive strategy and scheme for clearance of backlog and expeditious trial proceedings. It resolved that certain cases should be handled on fast track for quick disposal which may include bail matters, stay matters, writ petitions, revisions, family cases, rent cases, cases of juvenile offenders, etc. Mr Justice Haziqul Khairi, Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court; Mr Justice Tariq Parvez Khan, Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court; Mr Justice Amanullah Khan, Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court; Mr Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court; Mr Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court; and Dr Faqir Hussain, Secretary of the Committee, attended the meeting. The committee also held a special session which was attended by representatives of the bar including the president of Supreme Court Bar Association, vice chairman of Pakistan Bar Council, vice chairmen of the four provincial bar councils and presidents of the high court bar associations. The participants agreed with the proposals of the chief justice to ensure that the bench and the bar would work in unison. The representatives of the bar agreed that they would not seek unnecessary adjournments and cooperate with the judiciary in quick dispensation of justice and eradication of corruption. It was resolved that interaction between the bench and the bar would continue and high courts as well as district courts would also convene special meetings with the representative of the bar to evolve a strategy for clearance of the backlog and expedite disposal of cases. islamabad, april 19: the national judicial (policy-mak- ing) committee resolved on sunday that no chief justice or judge of any superior court will become acting governor of a province or hold any public of- fice in future. the committee headed by chief justice iftikhar mohammad chaudhry noted with concern the trend among re- tired judges of superior courts to accept appointment to various offices and said it was below the status of a judge. it asked the government to stop making such offers and the incumbents reconsider if should remain in the position they were currently holding. the meeting stressed the need for better implementation of laws and provision of justice to deserving people. “the existing laws are suffi- cient enough but require proper implementation and if they are followed properly it will auto- matically streamline the system and provide justice to the peo- ple,” justice chaudhry said in his remarks on the last day of the two-day meeting. the meeting supported the proposal of the chief justice to declare the year 2009 as the ‘year for justice for all’ with fo- cus on justice at the grassroots level. an official handout said: “the committee decided that in future no chief justice or a judge of su- perior court shall accept appoint- ment as acting governor of the province, in the same way they will not accept appointment of any other public office in feder- al/provincial government.” the meeting recommended that the provision of the constitution should be strictly followed which says: “a former judge of supreme court or a high court should not hold the office of profit in the service of pakistan, not being judicial or quasi-judicial office of the chief election commissioner or of a chairman or member of the law commission or of chairman or member of council of islamic ideology before the expiry of 2 years after his retirement.” the cj said: “therefore, no re- tired judge of the superior court shall accept an appointment of an ex-cadre post which is lower than his status, including bank- ing court, customs court, central court, administrative tribunal and federal/provincial service tribunals, etc. “the government may relieve such judges and the judges should also consider resigning from their post. this will be a safeguard against judges of the superior courts as well as subor- dinate courts from being in- duced/influenced for appoint- ment to such posts.” the committee recommended that the trend of retired judicial officers being appointed to spe- cial courts be also discouraged and as per the requirement of principle of independence of ju- diciary, qualified serving judges should be appointed to the posts, in consultation with the chief justice of high court. the independence of judiciary and its separation from the exec- utive and maintaining impartial- ity was a mandate of the constitution, which shall be fully enforced, it stressed. the meeting took notice of in- creasing complaints of corruption amongst judicial officers and court staff and supported the pol- icy of the chief justice of pakistan to show zero tolerance for corruption. it was resolved that the high court would improve the present mechanism/procedure for initiat- ing disciplinary proceedings against corrupt/inefficient judi- cial officers and the matter pref- erably should be taken up to the chief justice of the high court for prompt action against the cor- rupt/inefficient judges/court staff. the committee requested members of the bar and general public to submit credible evi- dence against such corrupt judg- es for prompt action. the meeting decided that a “cell for eradication of corruption from judiciary” under the super- vision of the registrar of the re- spective high court shall be estab- lished. complaints with credible evidence be forwarded to such cell and a copy thereof should be forwarded to the registrar, su- preme court. the committee agreed to pre- pare a comprehensive strategy and scheme for clearance of backlog and expeditious trial pro- ceedings. it resolved that certain cases should be handled on fast track for quick disposal which may include bail matters, stay matters, writ petitions, revisions, family cases, rent cases, cases of juvenile offenders, etc. mr justice haziqul khairi, chief justice of the federal shariat court; mr justice tariq parvez khan, chief justice of the peshawar high court; mr justice amanullah khan, chief justice of the balochistan high court; mr justice anwar zaheer jamali, chief justice of the sindh high court; mr justice khawaja mohammad sharif, chief justice of the lahore high court; and dr faqir hussain, secretary of the committee, attended the meet- ing. the committee also held a spe- cial session which was attended by representatives of the bar in- cluding the president of supreme court bar association, vice chair- man of pakistan bar council, vice chairmen of the four provincial bar councils and presidents of the high court bar associations. the participants agreed with the proposals of the chief justice to ensure that the bench and the bar would work in unison. the representatives of the bar agreed that they would not seek unnecessary adjournments and cooperate with the judiciary in quick dispensation of justice and eradication of corruption. it was resolved that interaction between the bench and the bar would continue and high courts as well as district courts would al- so convene special meetings with the representative of the bar to evolve a strategy for clearance of the backlog and expedite dispos- al of cases.

ISLAMABAD, April 18: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has declared 2009 as the ‘year of justice’ and vowed to eradicate corruption from courts and ensure quick dispensation of justice.Presiding over a meeting of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee here on Saturday, he said that after restoration of the judiciary to the pre-emergency position, justice should be extended to the masses.
The two-day meeting was convened by the chief justice to come up with a strategy for quick disposal of cases and dispensation of justice to the litigants by eliminating corruption from the judiciary.
The chief justice sought cooperation from bar associations to achieve this goal.
The meeting was attended by Justice Haziqul Khairi, Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court, Justice Tariq Pervez, Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Amanullah Khan, Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court, Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, and Dr Faqir Hussain, Secretary of the Law and Justice Commission.
The meeting called for releasing accused persons involved in bailable offences on personal bond if they are unable to furnish solvent surety. The meeting will continue it deliberations on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD (April 15 2009): The Chairman of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), Saeed Ahmad Khan, is said to have decided to submit pre-qualification documents to Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) for vetting. According to an insider, he gave this assurance to a delegation of TIP which met with him in the TCP office in Karachi. The TIP delegation, headed by its Chairman, Adil Gilani, discussed all the wrong doings of TCP former Chairman with the incumbent Chairman. The TCP Chairman assured TI P that all procurements of TCP would be made in accordance with PPRA Rules, in a most transparent, efficient and economical manner, and the practice of matching the highest/lowest bidders was also stopped immediately. TI P Chairman assured full assistance to TCP in capacity building of TCP officers in relation with the understanding of Public Procurement Rules 2004, and finalisation of TCP Procurement Manual. It was agreed that in this regard TI P would hold a workshop for TCP officers on Saturday, April 25, 2009, and pre-qualification documents of TCP would be examined and vetted, to comply with PPRA Rules.

KARACHI, April 12: Around 160 tenders for supply of goods and provision of services to various provincial government departments are being “corrected” every month, it has been learnt. According to highly-placed sources, the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA) was closely scrutinising, on a daily basis, tenders being published by the government. And, they said, it immediately approached the department concerned if it found out that advertisements were not in conformity with the government’s procurement rules, and then the departments were bound to reissue the entire advertisements or if the mistake was minor publish a corrigendum. The sources said that the federal government, on the advice of international donors – the World Bank, Asian Development Bank etc – and international watchdog agencies like Transparency International, had adopted the Public Procurement Regulatory Rules many years ago and the provinces adopted these rules to make their spending transparent. They said that the recently formed Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority was also scheduled to give a presentation regarding its rules to the cabinet, after which it would be tabled in the assembly and later rules would be framed and by the beginning of the next financial year — July 2009 — all spending would be done by strictly following the SPPRA rules and guidelines. Responding to Dawn’s queries SPPRA director Khaqan Murtaza said that the authority had conducted training workshops for officials in nine districts of the province to update them on new rules. He said that the rules were simple and most of the time it was because of ignorance that they were not followed. He said that the SPPRA closely monitored government adver tisements in newspapers on a daily basis and approached the department concerned if any irregularity was found, to get it corrected. He said that on average the SPPRA wrote around 160 letters a month to various government departments regarding irregularities in the tendering process. He said that SPPRA rules guaranteed transparency and open competition among all stakeholders and it opposed prequalification of companies and discouraged the usage of “emergency clause” while making purchases by departments. He said that while these rules put restrictions on one hand, on the other these also provided relaxations as well. He said under the earlier rules for spending up to a certain amount, three quotations were required before giving any contract; under the new rules it was not strictly necessary. He said that while the NWFP was leading in following these new rules, Sindh was in the second position, while Punjab and Balochistan were trailing behind in updating their rules to bring these in conformity with the new rules. He said that the government had to adopt the new rules soon, as after some time all funding coming from international donors had to be spent in accordance with these rules. He said that the Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, which was going through the auditor-general’s report, had also sought input from the SPPRA on spending done by the departments and had taken action according to the recommendations of the SPPRA. He said that the SPPRA team, which was headed by managing director Rizwan Ahmed, comprised Farasat Iqbal and himself as directors besides three procurement specialists — Naveed Channa (services), Ali Imam Qadri (goods) and Mohammad Arab Shaikh (works) — and some supporting staff. karachi, april 12: around 160 tenders for supply of goods and provision of services to vari- ous provincial government de- partments are being “corrected” every month, it has been learnt. according to highly-placed sources, the sindh public procu- rement regulatory authority (sppra) was closely scrutinis- ing, on a daily basis, tenders be- ing published by the govern- ment. and, they said, it immediately approached the department con- cerned if it found out that adver- tisements were not in conformity with the government’s procure- ment rules, and then the depart- ments were bound to reissue the entire advertisements or if the mistake was minor publish a cor- rigendum. the sources said that the fed- eral government, on the advice of international donors – the world bank, asian development bank etc – and international watchdog agencies like transparency international, had adopted the public procurement regulatory rules many years ago and the provinces adopted these rules to make their spend- ing transparent. they said that the recently formed sindh public procur- ement regulatory authority was also scheduled to give a presen- tation regarding its rules to the cabinet, after which it would be tabled in the assembly and later rules would be framed and by the beginning of the next finan- cial year — july 2009 — all spending would be done by strictly following the sppra rules and guidelines. responding to dawn’s queries sppra director khaqan murtaza said that the authority had conducted training work- shops for officials in nine dis- tricts of the province to update them on new rules. he said that the rules were simple and most of the time it was because of ignorance that they were not followed. he said that the sppra close- ly monitored government adver- tisements in newspapers on a daily basis and approached the department concerned if any ir- regularity was found, to get it corrected. he said that on average the sppra wrote around 160 letters a month to various government departments regarding irregular- ities in the tendering process. he said that sppra rules guaranteed transparency and open competition among all stakeholders and it opposed pre- qualification of companies and discouraged the usage of “emer- gency clause” while making pur- chases by departments. he said that while these rules put restrictions on one hand, on the other these also provided re- laxations as well. he said under the earlier rules for spending up to a certain amount, three quotations were required before giving any con- tract; under the new rules it was not strictly necessary. he said that while the nwfp was leading in following these new rules, sindh was in the sec- ond position, while punjab and balochistan were trailing behind in updating their rules to bring these in conformity with the new rules. he said that the government had to adopt the new rules soon, as after some time all funding coming from international do- nors had to be spent in accord- ance with these rules. he said that the sindh assembly’s public accounts committee, which was going through the auditor-general’s re- port, had also sought input from the sppra on spending done by the departments and had taken action according to the recom- mendations of the sppra. he said that the sppra team, which was headed by managing director rizwan ahmed, com- prised farasat iqbal and himself as directors besides three pro- curement specialists — naveed channa (services), ali imam qadri (goods) and mohammad arab shaikh (works) — and some supporting staff.

KARACHI (March 26 2009): To provide the aggrieved citizens with free legal assistance, the Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) on Wednesday launched an Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALDC) in Karachi. Speaking at a press conference at Karachi Press Club, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Syed Adil Gilani said that TIP requests the public to lodge genuine complaints and inform the centre of irregularities of any nature with solid proofs. He said that the TIP expects that the restored Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will do justice, as bravely as he had been doing during the martial law regime of Pervez Musharraf. TIP will compile complaints, which will be sent to the CJP for his appraisal on the issues being faced by the people, besides issuing a report after every six months about the numbers of disposed of complaints by the Supreme Court, Gilani pointed out. He said that on the request of TIP, the CJP announced on March 24 to make the judiciary free of corruption. He criticised the role of judiciary in the past, saying that had not the judiciary validated the martial laws, the unconstitutional governments would have never ruled the country for long. Adil Gilani enumerated the aims of the ALAC that include empowerment of citizens to help them access to easy justice and work for resolution of their problems. The centre is providing legal advises and assistance to citizens, undertaking advocacy for broader reforms, taking up the corruption cases with the concerned authorities, besides analysing and disseminating the data collected periodically. The core purpose of opening the centre, he said, is to fight against corruption by involving citizens, provide a deeper understanding to the citizens as to how corruption works practically. The Chairman, TIP hoped that the newly established centre will become an effective tool to curb corruption in the country. He appealed to the citizens to play their role in helping the centre to achieve its goals.

RAWALPINDI, March 15: The Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) on Sunday called upon the government to reinstate the deposed judges who were unconstitutionally dismissed on November 3, 2007 and immediately lift curbs on media. Syed Adil Gilani, TIP Chairman reminded the government that in the annual meeting of the Transparency International Asia Pacific Chapters comprising 20 countries, held in Manila, had called on the Pakistan government to reinstate the deposed judges. In a statement, he said access to information was the basic requirement of transparency which induces good governance and the rule of law, which are of fundamental importance for Pakistan to develop as a nation and become part of the developed world. It is not the job of a government alone to bring about good governance, but every individual has to strive for this by playing his active role in rooting out corruption from society, he said. In the view of Transparency International the termination of these judges critically weakens the effective functioning of the judicial sector. The judiciary is a key institution safeguarding the rule of law, accountability of governing institutions and the prevention of corruption. He reminded all the political parties to fulfil the commitment given to the nation in their election manifesto that “Judiciary shall be fully independent” and that “There will be no discretion in any administrative decision taken by government servants”.

KARACHI (March 15 2009): Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has called on the Government of Pakistan to re-instate the deposed judges who were unconstitutionally dismissed on November 3 2007 by Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf, and immediately stop intervention in media. Its chairman Adil Gilani reminded the government that in the annual meeting of the Transparency International Asia Pacific Chapters, (20 countries), held in Manila, called on the Government of Pakistan to re-instate the deposed judges. He said access to information is the basic requirement of transparency which induces good governance and the rule of law, which are of fundamental importance for Pakistan to develop as a nation and become part of the developed world. It is not the job of a government alone to bring about good governance, but every individual has to strive for this by playing his active role in rooting out corruption from society. In the view of Transparency International, the termination of these judges critically had weakened the effective functioning of the judicial sector. The judiciary is a key institution, safeguarding the rule of law, accountability of governing institutions and prevention of corruption. "It is not news that Pakistan is drowning in corruption due to absence of rule of law," Gilani said. He reminded all political parties to fulfil the commitment given to the nation in their election manifestos that Judiciary shall be fully independent and that There will be no discretion in any administrative decision taken by government servants.-PR

MULTAN (February 22 2009): Commissioner Multan has taken the assistance of Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) for transparent tendering. At a simple ceremony on Saturday Commissioner Multan Syed Muhammad Ali Gardezi, signed an MOU with Syed Adil Gilani of TIP. In his speech, Gardezi stated that the Multan Division has been granted a sum of Rs 13.5 billion by the Prime Minister under the Multan Development Package. The Punjab Government has also given Rs 500 million. He said that in order to spend the funds in the most transparent manner with aim to have the best quality construction, at the most economical cost and timely implementation, we have decided to seek assistance of Transparency International Pakistan, whose expert advise will allow us to utilise this fund in the most beneficial manner for the district of Multan. He further said that our aim is to eliminate the corruption from system, and attain zero tolerance towards corruption. He clarified that the services being rendered by TI Pakistan was a public service without any remuneration and the Multan Division will not have to bear any expense. Syed Adil Gilani, in his address, stated that Transparency International Pakistan is striving to curb corruption in the country. To achieve this aim TI Pakistan has signed MOUs with a number of government agencies and are assisting them in preparing tender documents according to the law of the country. He said that a team of experts will form a committee with officials from the Multan Division to prepare a 'Procurement Manual' for the implementation of the Integrity Pact and for transparency in the procurement system. This manual comprises of all the Standard Bidding Documents on procurement of Works, Goods & Services, based on International Standards, the World Bank, FIDIC and Pakistan Engineering Council, duly amended to comply with the Transparent Procurement Procedures, and fully compliant to the Punjab Government Procurement Rules.-PR

RAWALPINDI, Feb 21: The Transparency International Pakistan and the administration of Multan have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to ensure transparency in the procurement systems for the implementation of the Multan development package. The MoU for the 'integrity pact' was signed by TIP chairman Syed Adil Gilani and Commissioner of Multan Division Syed Mohammad Ali Gardezi at a ceremony on Saturday. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Punjab government have approved grants of Rs13.5 billion and Rs500 million, respectively, for the development of Multan. According to the documents available with Dawn, the 'integrity pact' is a tool developed by the TIP which ensures that all activities and decisions of public offices are transparent and that the projects and works are implemented, services are provided or taken, and goods or materials are supplied without giving or taking of any kind of benefit, financial or otherwise. Justification for decisions taken is provided without discrimination to all parties concerned. Under the MoU, the TIP will assist the administration of Multan in the transparent preparation of tender documents under the prevailing laws of the country. A team of TIP experts will form a committee with officials from the Multan division to prepare a 'procurement manual' for the implementation of the 'integrity pact' and for transparency in the procurement systems. The commissioner, Multan division, will form a three-member coordination committee which will identify and list all issues of transparency and evaluation of tenders' criteria in the procurement bidding documents, including the discretionary conditions existing in the contract documents and make necessary changes where necessary. The committee will prepare ways and means to be included in contract documents to eliminate and reduce delays to a bare minimum. It will introduce approval systems to process and award contracts, as well as complete the projects at the most economical cost and within the schedule time. The manual will consist of all the standard bidding documents on procurement of works, goods and services based on international standards, the World Bank, FIDIC and Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), duly amended to comply with the Transparent Procurement Procedures, and fully compliant to the Punjab Government Procurement Rules. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gardezi said that assistance had been sought from the TIP in order to spend the funds in most transparent manner with the aim to have the best quality construction at the most economical cost and timely implementation of projects under the Multan development package. Mr Gilani said TIP experts would advise the Multan administration on the utilisation of funds in the most beneficial manner. The MoU would ensure preparation of tender documents according to the procurement manual and vetting of the tender documents, he said, adding that the TIP would not be involved in the process of award of contracts

KARACHI (February 19 2009): Regional manager of TCF Schools South Brigadier Anwar Khan, inaugurated the 4th poster painting competition on 'Child's View of Corruption' at the Arts Council on Wednesday. The two-day exhibition was organised by the Transparency International-Pakistan and sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). 950 students from over 39 schools of The Citizens Foundation (TCF) South and South West Zones participated in it. Syed Adil Gilani, Chairman TI-P, gave the opening speech in which he applauded the students for their paintings, each one showing their view on corruption. He stated that corruption undermines democracy, human rights, civil liberties, and sustainable development, all this is a cause poverty and unrest in the society. The next speaker was Brigadier Anwar Khan, regional manager of TCF Schools South. He was pleased with the spirit of competition amongst the students. He stressed that the students should first look where corruption can start with and take means of avoiding it. He stressed that cheating in schools was becoming rampant and they should take care of not getting into this dark pit. All the participants were given certificates and prizes were also given to the best three posters from each school. Out of these winners three outstanding pictures were chosen as top winners. The exhibition is open for public viewing today at the Manzar Akbar Hall, Arts Council of Pakistan. TI-P's aim at conducting this kind of competition is to install within young school children the need to fight corrupt practices, the awareness of its evil influences and it's far reaching effects on our society and the nation as a whole. Curbing corruption is a means for the promotion of democracy and good governance, which would lead, to the improvement of the livelihood of the vast majority of the population. -PR

Getting children to talk about issues that plague our society at a young age is an important way to instill corrective behaviour in the next generation. This was the main philosophy behind the fourth poster painting exhibition by the Transparency International (TI) in collaboration with The Citizens Foundation (TCF) held at the Arts Council on Wednesday. The exhibition, inaugurated by Brigadier Anwar Khan, the regional manager of TCF schools - South, was the final stage of an art competition held by the TI Pakistan chapter and TCF, on the theme “Child’s view of Corruption”. In all, over 950 students from 39 different schools under TCF in Sindh (South and South West zones) participated in the competition. Syed Adil Gillani, Chairman TIP, gave the opening speech in which he applauded the students for their endeavour and enthusiasm in participating in the competition. He said that corruption undermines democracy, human rights, civil liberties, sustainable development and was a cause of poverty and unrest in society. Brig Anwar Khan, said that he was pleased with the spirit of the competition. He said that students should concentrate on where corruption originates from and take measures to deal with such temptations. He further said that cheating in schools was becoming rampant and the school administration and students must collectively work to rectify this trend. The first, second and third ranked students of each of the participating schools were given certificates. The exhibition will be open for public viewing at the Manzar Akbar Hall at the Arts Council from 10 am to 5 pm on 18th and 19th February. The project is being funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the TIP.

A two-day workshop under Transparency International (TI), Pakistan on Youth in Governance on 26-27 November held in B.Z.U, Multan focused on themes on how to make Pakistan a better place to live in.TI is one of the 90 national chapters worldwide of the global organization TI headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Enjoying the autonomy of functions it works as non-political, non-partisan, non-investigating, non-profit organization in collaboration with public and private sectors to fight corruption in non-confrontational approach. Its ultimate vision is to make Pakistan a transparent and less corrupt country for better living ----- a dream for which Pakistan at least was created for. The major finances for the workshop which involved invitation to around 100 students from different colleges and universities of Punjab and their logistics were sponsored by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The four major sessions focused on the structural and functional factors accountable for Pakistan as one of the leading corrupt and less transparent countries in the world --- and unfortunate for those who love Pakistan and still believes in their lives as coming first. The first session highlighted corruption and political instability, the two variables which correlate. Corruption is a multidimensional term and it exists more or less in every society in comparative terms. Corruption can be political, economic, social, cultural, religious and so on, but if it exceeds can bring chaos and instability in shorter run or longer run at the cost of human happiness and dignity. Dr. Kundi in his presentation said that corruption can simply be defined as the misuse of authority and power by those in office. The phenomenon is not new. Aristotle who is called the founder of political science said that corruption brings perversion to the system and makes it less effective. He writes in his book, Politics "once politicians in office have a number of things in favouring their friends or spiting their enemies out" and this to him brings corruption and instability. Politicians should avoid private gains at public interests. Political instability leads to i.e. crises of Identity, Legitimacy, Participation (political Parties), Representation and Penetration. The crises may exist in any society but depends in which ratio; if ratio exceeds it leads to instability and disintegration. Mr. Rashid Rehman's lecture on Human Rights and its violation necessitated that without human rights no society can progress. Human rights' concept began as the man crawled out of cave and started living in civilizations. There is difference between human rights and fundamental rights, the latter are those which are incorporated in constitution and can be challengeable in courts. The developed world has better list of human rights than the developing or underdeveloped. There is deep correlation between the crisis of political development and the violation of human rights in a state/society. The higher is the ratio of crises the more is found violation of human rights. The leading research at micro and macro level support the hypothesis that a country suffering from the crises of political development are prone to the violation of human rights. The higher is the intensity of crises, the more is violations of rights as existent in case of a large number of underdeveloped and Third World countries. The crises of political development which is an unfortunate existing phenomenon of underdeveloped/developing countries have direct consequences for the infraction of human rights in those societies. The pursuit of human rights being indispensable to mankind as they assure happiness, dignity and development of mankind meets a setback in societies where the crises exist. Dr. Al Kama, professor of political science at BZU and now designate High Commissioner to Bangladesh spoke on the issue of leadership crisis and challenges ahead. Leadership play an important role in the development and disintegration of nations. A nation is born at the hands of revolutionaries, visionaries, and freedom fighters supported by youth and commonfolk; strengthened by leadership, system building and visionaries; and lost at the hands of pseudo politicians and undemocratic forces. Pakistan from the beginning has faced leadership crisis which began due to untimely and early death of Quaid-e-Azam. Today's Pakistan is neither the vision of Choudary Rehmat Ali nor of Quaid-e-Azam, the one they looked for Quaid's vision was secular, democratic and unbiased for the promotion of a state where minorities could live in harmony. His successors pledged their support for the promotion of his ideas where only and only Pakistan comes first with a tolerance and promotion for all sects and classes of society, but showed seeds of distrust and apathy without or little legitimacy in office. A tragedy of the political history of Pakistan remained that during the most of the time of its existence it has been run by the persons who actually themselves entered politics through backdoors or undemocratic means and lacked both legitimacy and sincerity for the promotion of democratic principles. They were neither the outcome of a democratic process nor a popular movement to take up reins of office as the heads of the state. They entered the offices through intricacies, displacement and coups and tried to establish their rules as the Mediaeval reigning Monarchs without allocating a place for the growth of political norms and democratic culture. A nation is built on the aspiration and trust of its people. A nation is neither run nor developed on empty slogans and pseudo politics. We as a nation are 57 years old. The period may not be a long period in the history of nation building, nonetheless, it is sufficient enough to make adequate progress in the development of important infrastructure. China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea etc. achieved nationhood after we did, but have progressed far ahead of us. Mr. Zia ur Rehman, the Chief Executive of Awaz Foundation spoke on the role of community participation which has been the practice of established medieval and modern societies. Islam teaches it as priority which unfortunately has not been practised in many Islamic republics/states. The speaker agreed that the sense of community participation has been vanishing due to populace dependence on government support in rural areas. I agreed with him. Many rural areas in wake of flood or natural disaster would mobilize their own timely efforts to deal with the situation. With one call or beat of drum they would bring their ox driven ploughs and human resource but now they look forward to Nazim or local bodies institutions and fail to understand the necessity of the timely stitch which could save them nine they face few days later. However, a welfare state demands that government does and infuse the sense of community support. Modernization has withered it away with suitable replacement. And corruption ditches its access to general public affected or in need of. The latest example can be of Ziarat earthquake for which huge foreign aid reached but the problem is how far it was effectively utilized. Education being the remedy for many ills of society can raise the sense of community support and put accountability on government. Participated by university and colleges youth there were questions and answers with aggressive comments by the participants who showed that our youth want a change and show discontent with leadership and system. Youth is the future of a nation and higher they are disciplined and motivated with role models the better will be the outcome.

KARACHi: Prof Dr Muhammad Zafarullah, Vice Chancellor, }3ahauddin Zakariya University, Multan inaugurated the 5th Youth in Governance Workshop at the Executive Hall of the Institute of Management Sciences. The two-day workshop was organised by the Transparency International - Pakistan and sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC). Two hundred students of over 15 institutions from Multan and other Punjab cities participated in the workshop. Corruption undermines democracy, human rights, civil liberties, sustainable development, and is a cause both of poverty and a barrier to overcome. This was said by the Executive Director Saad Rashid of Transparency International Pakistan in his welcome address. He further stated that corruption breeds social, political economic unrest and a denial of human rights. He said that it was of utmost importance to curb corruption for the promotion of democracy and good governance, which would lead to the improvement of the livelihood of the vast majority of the population. Prof Dr Muhammad Zafarullah, the VC of BZU commended the efforts of TI-Pakistan in enhancing awareness of the evils of corruption. He said that education would play a great role in the fight against corruption. —PR

KARACHI: Pakistan is ranked at 46th position among 180 world countries in terms of corruption and corrupt practices. This was stated in a report of Transparency International (TI), which was unveiled by its chairman Syed Adil Gilani here Tuesday in Karachi Press Club during a press conference. He told Somalia and Iraq were the most corrupt countries while Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden were among the most transparent countries where the level of corruption was at lowest ebb. “The level of corruption in indigent countries in fact shows difference between life and death,’ he added. ‘Upsurge in corruption is posing a serious threat to the uplift programs for human being. As per CPI Points of 180 countries for the year 2008, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden stood atop with highest 9.3 points. Singapore comes close to them with 9.2 points, he added. Somalia lies at the bottom of CPI with 1.0 points. Iraq, Myanmar with 1.3 points and Haiti, With 1.2 points are equating each other on index. A tangible dip is witnessed in terms of the points as per 2007 and 2008 index. Improvement has been registered in the points of Bulgaria, Maldives and Norway among some others. Syed Adil Gi]ani told Pakistan CIP points remained 2.5 in 2008 and it was ranked at 46th in index among the corrupt countries. He stressed the need for establishment of good governance and induction of transparent administration in the country to counter the looming threats of higher inflation, terrorism and unemployment. “Good governance is the only way to extricate the country from the mess it was plunged by the past 10 years of worst ever governance” he informed. He pointed out that corruption has been cited as the major impediment in the way of development of the country. Lack of transparency and corruption hinder the procurement, the report added, and led to infrastructure crunch in water, power and transport sectors. Strict measures were urged to root out corruption from the public institutions and corporations, he remarked. The need is there that evil of abuse of powers for personal gains be eliminated. He informed that preparations of CPI in Pakistan was based on the reviews worked out by Asia Development Bank, IBRD, World Economic Porum, Economic intelligence unit, merchant international group and three other organizations.-Online

BERLIN, Sept 23: Stopping practices such as cronyism and embezzlement can save lives in poor countries, a graft watchdog said on Tuesday as Somalia, Iraq and Myanmar again came bottom in its global corruption rankings. “In the poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death, when money for hospitals or clean water is in play,” Transparency International (TI) said. “The continuing high levels of corruption and poverty plaguing many of the world’s societies amount to an ongoing humanitarian disaster and cannot be tolerated,” the non-governmental organisation’s head, Huguette Labelle said. Rampant corruption in low-income countries also jeopardises the global fight against poverty and threatens to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the report published in Berlin said. “This calls for a more focussed and coordinated approach by the global donor community to ensure development assistance is designed to strengthen institutions of governance and oversight in recipient countries, and that aid flows themselves are fortified against abuse and graft,” TI said. It estimates that unchecked levels of corruption would add $50 billion -- or nearly half of annual global aid outlays -- to the cost of achieving the MDGs on water and sanitation. The African Union has estimated that corruption costs the continent $148 billion annually, equal to the gross domestic product of Kenya, Tanzania and Cameroon combined, TI said. According to TI’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, the countries worst hit by problems such as back-handers and bribery in 2008 remained Somalia, Myanmar and Iraq. Somalia, the east African nation without a functioning government since 1991, scored just 1.0 point on TI’s range of between zero, which is highly corrupt, and 10, which is very clean. Myanmar, which received international condemnation for its heavy-handed crackdown on protests in September 2007, was on 1.3 points, as was Iraq, five years after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein. Haiti was on 1.4. The score is based on perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts. The places where officials were seen as least likely to line their own pockets were Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand, all sharing first place with a score of 9.3 points, ahead of Singapore in fourth and Finland and Switzerland in joint fifth. In 2007, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand shared the top spot. But TI was also critical of some wealthy nations that registered significant drops in the global rankings, such as Britain, whose score fell to 7.7 points from 8.4 in 2007, and Norway, which dropped to 7.9 points from 8.7. Britain fell to 16th in the rankings from 12th in 2007, and Norway slipped to 14th from ninth. The continuing emergence of foreign bribery scandals indicates a broader failure by the world’s wealthiest countries to live up to the promise of mutual accountability in the fight against corruption, TI said. “This sort of double standard is unacceptable and disregards international legal standards,” said Labelle. “Beyond its corrosive effects on the rule of law and public confidence, this lack of resolution undermines the credibility of the wealthiest nations in calling for greater action to fight corruption by low-income countries.” Substantial improvements in the rankings were recorded for Albania, Cyprus, Georgia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Tonga and Turkey. The United States saw its score inch up to 7.3 points from 7.2 points in 2007, putting it at joint 18th place with Japan, whose score fell from 7.5 a year ago. China was on 3.6 points at 72nd, up from 3.5 points and just ahead of India, whose score dropped to 3.4 from 3.5 to put it in 85th position. Russia, in 147th place, also saw its score fall, from 2.3 points to 2.1 points. Germany’s rose to 7.9 from 7.8, putting it in 14th position, while France’s dropped to 6.9 from 7.3, making it 23rd.—AFP

BERLIN, Sept 23: Rankings of 180 nations studied by the Transparency International for its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. The scores relate to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by businesspeople and country analysts and ranges between zero, which is highly corrupt, and 10, which is very clean. The scores are tabulated under ranking, country name and score: 1, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand (9.3); 4, Singapore (9.2); 5, Finland, Switzerland (9.0); 7, Iceland, Netherlands (8.9); 9, Australia, Canada (8.7); 11, Luxembourg (8.3); 12, Austria, Hong Kong (8.1); 14, Germany, Norway (7.9); 16, Ireland, United Kingdom (7.7); 18, United States, Japan, Belgium (7.3); 21, Saint Lucia (7.1); 22, Barbados (7.0); 23, France, Chile, Uruguay (6.9); 26, Slovenia (6.7); 27, Estonia (6.6); 28, Spain, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (6.5); 31, Cyprus (6.4); 32, Portugal (6.1); 33, Israel, Dominica (6.0); 35, United Arab Emirates (5.9); 36, Botswana, Puerto Rico, Malta (5.8); 39, Taiwan (5.7); 40, South Korea (5.6); 41, Mauritius, Oman (5.5); 43, Macao, Bahrain (5.4); 45, Bhutan, Czech Republic (5.2); 47, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Jordan, Cape Verde (5.1); 52, Slovakia, Latvia (5.0); 54, South Africa (4.9); 55, Seychelles, Italy (4.8); 57, Greece (4.7); 58, Turkey, Lithuania, Poland (4.6); 61, Namibia (4.5); 62, Samoa, Croatia, Tunisia (4.4); 65, Kuwait, Cuba (4.3); 67, Ghana, Georgia, El Salvador (3.9); 70, Romania, Colombia (3.8); 72, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Peru, Mexico, China, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Swaziland (3.60); 80, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Morocco (3.5); 85, Senegal, Panama, Serbia, Montenegro, Madagascar, Albania, India (3.4); 92, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Lesotho (3.2); 96, Gabon, Mali, Jamaica, Guatemala, Benin, Kiribati (3.1); 102, Tanzania, Lebanon, Rwanda, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Djibouti, Mongolia (3.0); 109, Armenia, Belize, Argentina, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Moldova (2.9); 115, Mauritania, Maldives, Niger, Malawi, Zambia, Egypt (2.8); 121, Togo, Vietnam, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Nepal (2.7); 126, Indonesia, Honduras, Ethiopia, Uganda, Guyana, Libya, Eritrea, Mozambique (2.6); 134, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Comoros, Ukraine (2.5); 138, Paraguay, Liberia, Tonga (2.4); 141, Yemen, Cameroon, Iran, Philippines (2.3); 145, Kazakhstan, Timor-Leste (2.2); 147, Syria, Bangladesh, Russia, Kenya (2.1); 151, Laos, Equator, Papua New Guinea, Tajikistan, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Belarus (2.0); 158, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Congo Republic, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Gambia (1.9); 166, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan (1.8); 171, Congo-Democratic Republic, Equatorial Guinea (1.7); 173, Guinea, Chad, Sudan (1.6); 176, Afghanistan (1.5); 177, Haiti (1.4); 178, Iraq, Myanmar (1.3); 180, Somalia (1.0).—AFP