Good governance: Soomro underlines importance of parliamentary institutions

Pakistan has called for the establishment of "sustainable parliamentary institutions" to ensure good governance and fight the scourge of corruption that negatively affects efficiency and development.
"Good governance and fight against corruption are not mutually exclusive," Pakistan Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro told participants in Tuesday's session of the joint United Nations and Inter-Parliamentary Union hearings. The theme of the hearing was "Good governance and the fight against corruption - key tools in peace-building and conflict prevention".
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation grouping sovereign national parliaments, serves as the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue, as well as promoting peace, co-operation and representative democracy. It currently has more than 140 members, besides seven regional parliamentary assemblies that enjoy associate membership.
Pakistan is represented at the hearing by a four-member Senate delegation headed by Soomro. Other members are Senators Syed Dilawar Abbas, Muhamamd Enver Baig and Dr Muhammad Said.
Opening the hearing, John Williams, Chairman of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians against Corruption, stressed that only through accountability could good governance be established and corruption fought. "Accountability is us, the parliamentarians", Williams said, adding that if leaders thought they could get away with stealing a billion dollars, they would do it.
The only way to establish good governance was through accountability and by making the price for failure too high, he said, admitting that corruption could never be completely eliminated.
In his speech, Soomro said Pakistan said the establishment of Peace-building Commission stemmed from it's concept of "Ad Hoc Composite Committees" at the UN that brought together members of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), and other relevant participants including troop contributors, financial donors and related institutions.
Pakistan, he said, had remained one of the top contributors of troops to the UN peacekeeping missions, which played the main role in ensuring security in the post conflict societies. As of 30th September 2006, Pakistan was the largest contributor with nearly 10,000 personnel deployed in 11 UN operations of which seven were in Africa. "From domestic experience and decades of exposure at the UN and at the peace-keeping missions, we have learnt good governance cannot be ensured without an administrative and political environment "free from corruption", the Senate chairman said.
He pointed out that the first victim of corruption became the "development process itself as inequalities get entrenched". Repeated research studies showed corruption negatively affects "growth, efficiency, equity and welfare". It has also been established that "no system is free of corruption" but "its effects are most destructive in the developing world".
Soomro said Pakistan's anti-corruption strategy was based on three principles:
PREVENTION: This includes systemic, institutional, legislative and administrative reforms, wide based public education and awareness aimed at removing incentives, compulsions and opportunities for corrupt practices; removing discretionary powers in policy making; and by giving State functionaries better pay-packages, motivation and conducive working environments. The system of evaluation and checks should be transparent and merit based and with no room for any exception.
MONITORING: This entails regular and systemic measuring of nature, causes and extent of corruption, through reliable and verifiable data collection; and
COMBATING: This includes improvement in the legal and institutional arrangements for the detection, investigation and prosecution of corruption. "Implementation of this strategy has yielded positive results," the Senate chairman said.
However, there were some impediments of international nature. These included "transfer of assets of illicit origin" and "illegal practices of international corporations", attributed mainly to diverse legal systems. The United Nations Convention against corruption provided an adequate framework for international co-operation, he said. As a signatory of the convention, Pakistan would be required to undertake appropriate legislation to accommodate its provisions.