Elected leaders and their ways...

The News, June 14, 2006
Have they no shame?
Ansar Abbasi

One's head hangs in shame over the conduct of our MPs. Instead of acting as giants of the society, majority of them are proving themselves dwarfs. If our tomorrow is connected to this present lot of MPs, I have no hesitation to conclude that the future is bleak. Going through the wealth statements of the MNAs and senators, as declared by them before the Election Commission of Pakistan, it is hard to decide whether to laugh or cry over the 'solemn' declarations of those holding our fate in their hands. These statements appear more like a piece of comic literature than a result of following a statutory practice.

According to these declarations, almost 100 MNAs including those known for being rich and mighty in their respective areas do not have any conveyance of their own. More than 80 have no house of their own while more than two dozens have shared shelter. In the 100-member upper house, almost 59 have senators have stated that they have no house and no car. Among these poor creatures are people like PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj, Mian Muhammad Aslam, Education Minister Lt-Gen (rtd) Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Minister for Information Technology Awais Leghari, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Health Hamid Yar Hiraj and several others. And there are other members of parliament like Kashmir Affairs Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, Gulzar Ahmad Khan, Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan and many others who have neither a house to live nor a car to ride.

Isn't this a cruel joke with the people of Pakistan? The vast majority of members of parliament have under-declared the present value of their assets. For example, two houses in Karachi's Defence, one of them under construction, on a 2,000 square yards plot belonging to Makhdoom Amin Faheem of Hala have been declared as being worth a mere Rs7.8 million. Raza Hayat Hiraj declared that he gifted 100 kanals of his land to his munshi (private accountant). However, later in Geo's Capital Talk he admitted he had done this to counter the anticipated land reforms. He also said that every landlord, particularly in Sindh, does this. Even Imran Khan admitted to mentioning his ex-wife Jemima Khan as his spouse in the 2005 declaration to get his Rs48 million Islamabad property transferred to himself from her.

The MPs sitting on both sides of the political divide have generally shown the same kind of character. Barring the exceptions, what they say in Punjabi "Iss hamam main saab nanggay hain" is the real depiction of the state of affairs of our members of parliament. If our leaders act like this, how and why should we expect ordinary citizens to be honest with the state and its institutions? It is common knowledge that we are a nation of tax-evaders. But the question is, if our leaders are not honest in their tax returns, why should people pay their taxes?

Leaders are called leaders for they are entrusted with task of leading the teeming masses to a prosperous future. They are seen as trendsetters. It is their responsibility to set examples and be the role-models for the people. But if they do things contrary to what is expected of them, then it is obvious that society is in decline; and there is little doubt we are declining fast.

More than anything else, the asset declarations show the moral bankruptcy of our MPs. But what really hurts is the fact that no one around is bothered enough to look into these returns and proceed against those who have made false declarations.. It would be naive to expect the National Accountability Bureau to do anything about it, but the bureau must be asked what moral justification it has to proceed against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse for 'mis-declaration of assets'.

Making public details of assets of the ruling class should not be an annual ritual, it should be a serious exercise for both filing the returns and the authorities whose job it is to scrutinize such documents. The purpose of the whole exercise should be to ensure that the rulers are not involved in money-making through corrupt ways and that they do not amass assets beyond their known and declared means. For this the focus should not be on members of parliament alone. The whole ruling elite should be bound by law to make their and their families' assets public every year. It should start from the top -- the president the prime minister and his cabinet, serving generals (for being part of the present civil-military rule) and the top members of the civilian bureaucracy.

The writer is bureau chief of the News in Islamabad. Email: ansar.abbasi@hotmail.com