Corruption: thinking beyond NAB & politicians

NAB has done this and NAB has done that. So goes the headlines these days. Or that a politically connected person has been caught with four kilograms of hashish, while another politically connected person has been sent to judicial remand for failing to show tenancy agreement. Must it be so that thinking about corruption is limited to nabbing people around, and only those who are politically connected preferably with the opposition parties.

It’s a flaw to assume that corruption is Pakistan’s only problem. It’s another to assume that Pakistan’s corruption problem will be solved only through NAB cases. Catching famous politically connected people and putting them behind bars and subjecting them to both judicial and media trials gets people excited; it gives a false hope to frustrated segments of the masses that their incomes will rise once corrupt politicians go behind bars. But putting politicians and politically connected people behind bars is only one way of ending corruption. What is instead needed is a holistic approach.

Corruption originates from a faulty system, one that offers wrong set of incentives and disincentives that allows people to neglect their duty or to seek opportunities of illegal means of earnings. It is therefore the system that needs to be fixed. For instance, if milkmen are mixing chemicals in milk, it’s fundamentally because the right incentive structure – market-based prices - is not put in place. Or if a government official takes money under the table, then it’s because her pay grades are not adequate and her career growth is not pegged to key performance indicators. Addressing corruption therefore requires fixing the system – of markets and of governance.

Another way of institutionalising the campaign against corruption is through laws that enforce accountability, transparency and plug gaps that allow the creation and parking of monies earned through corruption. These include effective implementation of Right to Information law, benami laws, anti-money & black money laundering; marked-based real estate valuation and so forth.

Lastly, public sector and the politicians do not have the monopoly on corruption. Corruption in the broadest sense of the word is so prevalent that the society’s tolerance level of corruption has risen over time. Take a moment to reflect on how the Urdu expression ‘itna to chalta hai’ has become popular across the country over the last few decades. Producers are fleecing customers, and vice versa, even if by way of stealing electricity or water.

To dissuade the public from the social norms of corruption requires a certain kind of messaging from the top, along with the fixing of the system, and effective prosecution of culprits from the private sector. If a few rich and famous people from private citizenry are justly prosecuted for evading taxes or stealing electricity, gas or water. Or if certain companies that cheat on quantities – say of packaged milk as UHT processors often do - are publicly prosecuted, things can start moving in the right direction.

Corruption may not be Pakistan’s only major problem, as PM Khan’s statements have led people to believe, but nevertheless, it is one of the country’s biggest problems. If an ineffective system of incentives or disincentives gives frequent birth to corruption, the lack of accountability, transparency and other related legal framework help sustain it.

There has been some progress on the latter since the PTI came to power last year – benami, tax reforms etc - but full results will take time of course. The realisation of the former, however, is missing as reforms of markets and governance hasn’t gotten PTI’s attention so far. Nor has the realisation that private sector is equally responsible for and has an important role in reducing acceptable levels of corruption in the society.

Democracy isn’t only about accountability or putting all and sundry behind bars on the premise that none is above the law. It’s also about public reasoning to find solutions to shared problems. Instead of creating a single enemy (the politicians/politically connected) or suggesting a single solution (NAB) to corruption, the PTI would do well to nurture public reasoning to find holistic solutions to Pakistan’s corruption problem.