Having taken the lowest step of the ladder of the highest executive service of Pakistan, then with no prospects of ever coming over to the judiciary, I tried my best to live up to the task, reconcile to the requirements of the service not of my liking or of my choice. All along in the executive, I found that I could perform independently only twenty percent of my duties to my satisfaction (I have explained it at full length in great detail in the first paper that I wrote “Executive Orders and Their Disobedience”, serialized in Frontier Post, 19-21st July 1995). The rest was somehow influenced by superiors or those around, not necessarily in the direction in which I wanted to work. At that time, the Patwari needed and was well-provided with bare necessities of the family by the landlords of the area. A teacher received the well-deserved respect and accommodation from all and added dignity to the locality inhabited by him. There was not much wealth around, none to show and influence. Austerity and commitment to duties were generally considered a virtue and was preferred. The society was predominantly value-oriented.
In 1958, the first, and a very well planned long-term takeover by a dynamic CEO came into existence. A shift in our foreign policy took place attracting the attention and admiration of the wealthier countries of the world, which we still show on TV with great satisfaction and feel greatly honored. Foreign aid and foreign investment flowed with such speed and in such magnitude that the domestic economic turmoil that followed remained unnoticed, totally unfelt. In the process, however, noticeable improvements were achieved in the social sector concerning registration of marriages, and rationalization of family laws. The initial and immediate impact on the economic life of the country was disastrous. The only and the famous retailer of New Anarkali had to sell all his products at one-third of their purchase price and remained out of business for months. The outflow of business and wealth took place on an unprecedented scale, mostly to Swiss banks and other havens in Europe. A few went out as far as the Cayman Islands. Following the United States practice, advice was given that the children of those enjoying State power or sharing it can freely carry on their own business. What followed was a spectacle. The adult children left their secure jobs and joined either the running business houses or established with solvent parties, new businesses. Their name, their participation, their very presence ensured the success of the business (more details of their involvement and its extent in Ayesha Siddiqa’s book Military Inc.).
This was the period which saw the beginning and a very robust unashamed appearance of corruption in the Bureaucracy of the country. It all started with licenses and permits for establishing industries, followed by over-invoicing and under-invoicing in imports and export, getting route permits for transport, obtaining commissions in foreign currencies, keeping dealings in bonus vouchers etc. Methods of corruption kept on improving, adjusting and changing. At first, people named only twenty-two such families emerging. Soon the number increased to two hundred, then to two thousand and finally to twenty thousand, and now stabilized at an ever-increasing pace. All this has resulted in shrinking the middle-class population considered the backbone of a civilized society.
For a number of plausible reasons but some not so, the capital of the country was shifted from Karachi to Islamabad. One of the reasons popularly advanced was that removed from commercial centers there will be less corruption. What happened was the opposite. A category of lobbyist-like intermediaries came into existence, totally uncontrolled, totally unregulated peddling between Karachi and Islamabad arranging deals with officers usually their relatives or acquaintance or former colleagues. Corruption at the top level became more rewarding, safer, and more dignified. At the intermediate level, a group came into existence hovering round offices offering and undertaking all types of facilitation work for a fee. In all the offices, whatever be the instructions under circulation, there was demand for a fee for moving the wheels of the ‘file’. It was most tragic to find the old pensioners obliged to share a cut in order to get the Pension Order.
Enter the ambitious ‘businessmen’ and ‘industrialist’ in the arena of State power. All the methods of corruption changed. At Page 147 of his memoir “In the line of fire”, the Commando CEO has given an example of how a project worth Rs. 18 billion was after reduction offered at Rs. 75 billion. A stage came when foreign governments started pointing fingers and we did not take it seriously either.
One area of great satisfaction that I experienced was as a Colonization Officer of Haveli project extending over four districts of central Pakistan in 1956. It was that parcels of colony land which was allocated or reserved for grants to meritorious members of the Armed forces. An officer was deputed to periodically visit and see to its development and he usually called on the Colonization Officers and pointed out the progress and difficulties, if any. The other was that the Armed forces had a very organized system of registration of the grievance of the members and contacting the civil administration, usually the Deputy Commissioner for their easy and early resolution. With police help, it was possible to settle the matter and very quickly. I had no knowledge of how the difficulties in court cases were handled. In Bahawalpur, as Deputy Commissioner, I had no such problem. The land was in abundance, but all belonged to the state for grants to civilians for service, as a reward, or for cultivation. No reservation as a class for the army.
As the insecurity of the public servants went on increasing their participation in varied business in the names of their dependent relatives, confidantes, or front men went on increasing. I had an occasion to go deep into the matter in a judicial case reported as PLD 1991 SC 14. In that case, I found that it was the usual practice that route permits were mostly granted to the front men of those who belonged to law enforcement agencies or the like. So, the buses came to be known by the name of the ‘background’ officer and were protected against violation of laws, rules, and instructions. A free field for everyone to make money.
The enforcement part in the matter of intelligence collection and preventive, preemptive action suffered most. Favorites were posted to coveted posts like that of Appraisers in the Customs and posts in the FIA. As deputations, they enjoyed the protection against delinquent conduct from the departments they were serving. What a protective shield! For them, their competent authority remained the same in the parent lending authority. The abuse was so widespread that the first charge, right or wrong against a Chief Justice was never and nowhere examined on facts. It was for the Parliament to ask ten or twenty years appointments made in the FIA by such a novel procedure. Politicians in office soon became shareholders with bureaucrats and the like. The full disclosure has yet to be made of the variety of corrupt assets kept by a Secretary of the Provincial Government, a small country’s total budget amount of the year.
Experiences of a Lifetime 