Strive Against Corruption

And do not consume your money between you unjustly by bribing the decision makers so that you may consume a part of the other people’s money sinfully while you know. [Quran:2:188] 

Do not confound the truth with falsehood, don’t conceal the truth, knowingly. [Quran’2:42]

Enjoin  which is just, and forbid which is evil [Quran;3:104]

Introduction

Corruption is deeply rooted in our society that no government can be free from the clutches of the corrupt mafia. Corruption is commonly considered in financial matters but, corruption dominates all spheres of society.

Word ‘Corruption has wide meanings , some of the dictionary meaning of corruption are:

Corruption is a form of dishonesty or criminal offense undertaken by a person or organization entrusted with a position of authority, to acquire illicit benefit or abuse power for one’s private gain, according to Wikipedia. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement, though it may also involve practices that are legal in many countries.Political corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain. Corruption is most commonplace in kleptocracies, oligarchies, narco-states and mafia states.

Corruption in Pakistan is widespread, and extends to every sector from government to judiciary, police, health services and education. The problems are long-standing, and despite ongoing calls for reform, and many attempts to improve the situation, there is little evidence of progress. Anti corruption efforts are cosmetic in nature and not result oriented.

“There is so much corruption in the country that if we get involved in probing them all our time will be consumed in the investigations and we will not be able to deliver. There are so many scandals and frauds that they cannot even be listed. There are a number of projects which could not be completed in 20 years due to which their cost increased manifold.” [Nawaz Sharif, PM 2017]

There is dire need for the patriotic, concerned citizens to come forward and establish TCP – Truth Commission of Pakistan (No reconciliation).,,. To cater for the time in establishment of such a set up, virtual TCP is a good option, which has been undertaken by this writer. It is one of many projects of “SalaamOne Network” visited by over 4.5 million worldwide.

ICT for TCP

Initially TCP is ICT based, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a broader term for Information Technology (IT), which refers to all communication technologies, including the internet, wireless networks, cell phones, computers, software, middleware, video-conferencing, social networking, and other media applications and services … TCP will use ICT’s as a main tool to achieve its objectives.

Role of mainstream and social media

Mainstream media

Before 2002, the electronic media was entirely dominated by state-owned institutions like Pakistan Television Corporation and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. This monopoly was thwarted, when the Musharraf regime regulated the electronic media allowing for private television channels to be operated independently. Since the liberalisation of the electronic media in 2002, it has served as a major force in exposing corruption-related cases and scams.

Following are a few of the major corruption scams and scandals reported and exposed in the mainstream Pakistani media.

• Rental Power Projects (RPP) scam: In 2006, the media reported on a case involving several instances of bribery in the Rental Power Projects (RPP) where top-level ministers were involved. Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was also allegedly involved in these cases of corruption but was later cleared by the NAB. His involvement in this case earned him the nickname “Raja Rental”.
• PMDC fake registrations: In 2010, Dr Ahmad Nadeem Akbar, Registrar of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council had cancelled fake registrations done by some PM&DC officials and had dismissed them from service as they were found to issuing fake registration of medical professionals, allowing for inexperienced personnel to take up important positions in medicine and play with lives of public. The Islamabad High Court in July 2014 and earlier the Supreme Court had upheld his actions and have ordered high power inquiries by NAB in this regard against culprits nominated by Dr Ahmad Nadeem Akbar Once this negligence was reported in the media, the Anti-corruption and Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency took action and identified fake registrations for 40 doctors and 19 medical colleges. The case of registration of 19 medical colleges in one day was investigated by Honourable Justice Shabbar Raza Rizvi and report points towards corruption by the PM&DC Executive Committee member Dr Asim Hussain and Prof Massod Hameed Khan and the employees of the Federal Ministry. As of 2013, FIA had identified about 150 probable instances of fake registrations.
• Mismanagement of state-owned institutions: Pakistan’s flagship airline Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was reported to have been mismanagement by the executive authorities giving rise to a corrupt culture of bribery. Corruption in PIA led to losses of around US$ 500 million. Similarly, massive financial losses were reported for Pakistan Railways caused by embezzlement.
• OGRA scam: One Adnan Khwaja brother-in-law of PPP Secretary-General Punjab was appointed as Chairman who was instrumental in the scam. The OGRA scam case is sub-judice and the ex-Chairman is being prosecuted but at snails’ pace.
• NATO containers case: Media reported on 40 NATO containers that went missing on their way to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. It was later identified that the missing containers carried cargo that was considered contraband in Pakistan, including liquor to be sold in Pakistan.
• Pakistan Steel Mills scam: The mainstream media reported a major scam in the Pakistan Steel Mills involving Rs 26.5 billion. Once the scam was reported, the FIA initially took action but their progress turned sluggish due to which the Supreme Court issued a contempt of court notice to the interior minister Rehman Malik for hindering and interfering with the investigation.
• Hajj corruption case: Media reported on an ongoing corruption scandal involving federal ministers extorting illegal payouts from travel agents involved in fleecing Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. Then Minister of Science and Technology, Azam Khan Swati, identified and named the Minister of Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, as being responsible for giving out these illegal orders. He revealed that he had already warned the prime minister about the scandal thereby making several leading members of the parliament accessory to these criminal offences.
• NICL corruption case: The National Insurance Company Limited scandal was first reported in the media in 2012 involving the purchase of 10 acres of land in Karachi by the company at “an exorbitant price” and the transfer of millions of rupees from the account of Zafar Salim, a cousin of the land seller Khwaja Akbar Butt into the joint accounts of Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, his wife and his son.
• Ephedrine quota case: The Ephedrine quote case was a scandal involving Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s son, Ali Musa Gillani, who pressure officials of the Ministry of Health into allocating a quota (worth Rs 70 billion) of controlled chemical ephedrine to two different Multan-based pharmaceutical companies.
• The Mediagate scandal: It was reported that Chief Justice of PakistanIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s son had allegedly taken money from Malik Riaz Hussain, a real-estate tycoon, to persuade courts to give decisions in favour of the latter. Renowned columnist and anchorperson Javed Chaudhry observed that the case against Malik Riaz proved that the media can hold itself and the judiciary accountable. He further added that this case along with the case for missing persons effectively establish the credibility and impartiality of media’s fight against corruption.

Social media

In the wake of 2013 elections, massive electoral rigging was alleged through first-hand accounts of several members of the public via social networking websites. Specialised websites were set up to publish and archive material exposing corrupt malpractices throughout the many polling stations serving several constituencies, e.g., dhandli.com (no more available). Several leaked videos of persons supposed to be caught in the act of rigging the polls went viral and caught the eye of the mainstream media becoming topics of discussion in days to follow. However, a judicial probe found these allegations to be unsubstantiated. Even before the elections, social media served as an effective tool to hold the nation’s to-be-leaders “accountable” for various issues like corruption and education.

Citizen journalism is emerging as a growing phenomenon and social media is being touted in Pakistan as an important tool that can be used to strengthen democracy. Adding to the mix, several prominent politicians have moved to the likes of Twitter to gather support and get prospective voters on board and analysts think that this can lead to a better and direct accountability of political leaders. Social media has also proved effective in identifying corruption in mainstream media, particularly in the case of the mediagate scandal.

A lot of positives can be derived from social media and its effects on Pakistan. But it is not without its problems. Lack of legislation and implementation of defamation laws has allowed propaganda against certain people particularly politicians to go unchecked. How to prevent such elements in social media without infringing on freedom of expression should be a topic of debate for legislators in the future.

Main Types of Corruption

World Bank economist Daniel Kaufmann extended the concept to include “legal corruption” in which power is abused within the confines of the law — as those with power often have the ability to make laws for their protection. The effect of corruption in infrastructure is to increase costs and construction time, lower the quality and decrease the benefit.

Religious Corruption

Religion can Help in the Fight against Corruption. There is general agreement that religion and ethics are closely linked. Religion provides a system of norms and values guiding how individuals should live. Such norms and values are often codified as religious beliefs in the Bible or the Quran. And 84% of the world’s population declare themselves as religious.

It seems clear that the only solution to the multiple challenges threatening us today is to reinforce the spiritual foundations of society, and to help every willing individual to begin the process of internal transformation, and each community to launch itself on a collective process of responsibilization and transformation. Only in this way can we rebuild, from the bottom up, solid ethical foundations for the world society that must ultimately emerge from this age of frustration and transition. Even so, behavioral ethics as a discipline tends to ignore issues of faith. If the religion is corrupted it will create a very dangerous situation because.

Religion’s role in economic development:

The WVS has over the years demonstrated that people’s beliefs play a key role in economic development, the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions, the rise of gender equality, and the extent to which societies have effective government. Some of the key findings of the work are described: Watch short 33 seconds Video: https://youtu.be/ABWYOcru7js

Common Corrupt Practices in Religion: 

Religion has an important place in society so is the clergy [Priests, Mullahs, Ulema etc]. The clergy has the role of spiritual guidance, conducting worship and other social ceremonies on birth, marriage, and burial.  Power and authority (moral or spiritual or political) is the cause of corruption as it is said that; Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. People respect, fatwā, is a nonbinding legal opinion on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified jurist in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a mufti, and the act of issuing fatwas is called iftā.  Fatwas have played an important role throughout Islamic history, taking on new forms in the modern era. The sectarian Muftis use Fatwa against opposing sects, which is misuse and corruption.

The main types of corruption in religion are:

(1) Intellectual Corruption of Religious Thought:

Through Intellectually corrupting the religion, they undermine the core teachings of the scripture to justify common laxity and corrupt practices of the elite or the followers of a particular sect or group. The addition of new practices not in the original teachings result in deviation and misguidance, creation of new sects and groups, compromising religious harmony and unity. The main cause of this intellectual corruption in Islam is due to discarding Quran and prefer other books, so on Day of Judgment the Prophet (pbuh) will say that his own people abandoned the Qur’an: “My Lord, my people treat this Qur’an as something to be ignored…” (Quran: 25:30)

Iqbal deliver lectures on “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”, which are lying in bookshelves.

(2) Financial & Moral Corruption:

The other type is the common corruption found in society, i.e. financial matters, sexuality, child abuse, and other immoral practices.  The Terrorists wave in the Middle East [ISIS/ Daesh], Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria is a good example of corruption of Islamic Thought [intellectual corruption]. It was supported by the imperialist powers to destroy / damage the Muslim world. The Holy texts are twisted to get religious legitimacy for the heinous crimes of terrorism, strictly forbidden in Islam. To comprehend the subject it is important to understand the overall global environments and effective use of corruption of religious thoughts to gain political advantage at global level:

Zionism:

Zionism is the main cause of turmoil and troubles in the world, it is based on the corrupted ideology of Jews and the concocted translations and interpretations of the scripture.,. The Racist Americans like Donald Trump (thrown out of White House, in humiliation), Neocons and Zionist-Christians also derive their strength form “Corrupted” scripture. Dispensationalism – Root of Christian  Zionism: Zionism is grounded on an interpretation of the Bible that supports the ingathering of all Jews to Israel and their exclusive claim to the whole land of Palestine based on the gift of the Land to Abraham and the Jewish people as the “chosen people”.

How Zionists Corrupted Christian Theology !

In 2015, Princeton University professor Kevin M. Kruse advances the thesis that business leaders in the 1930s and 1940s collaborated with clergymen, including James W. Fifield Jr., to develop and promote a new hermeneutical approach to Scripture that would de-emphasize the social Gospel and emphasize themes, such as individual salvation, more congenial to free enterprise.

Business leaders, of course, had long been working to “merchandise” themselves through the appropriation of religion. In organizations such as Spiritual Mobilization, the prayer breakfast groups, and the Freedoms Foundation, they had linked capitalism and Christianity and, at the same time, likened the welfare state to godless Paganism.

Hinduism and Narendra Modi

The Haaretz published a revealing article: “Hitler’s Hindus : The Rise and Rise of India’s Nazi-loving Nationalists RSS in India”. It exposes the Racist Nazi ideology, linked with Hindu racism. Ironically, Hitler – the genocidal maniac who murdered more than six million Jews, who propagated a Nazi ideology that promoted hatred, Aryan racial Puritanism and white supremacy – continues to find many followers in India, a nation of predominantly brown-skinned people. The slow genocide of Muslims in occupied Kashmir and India is watched in silence by international community.

Buddhist Terrorism in Myanmar & Sri Lanka

The Buddhist scripture condemns violence in every form. Ahimsa, a term meaning ‘not to injure’, is a primary virtue in Buddhism. Buddhist principles with regard to violence, and also provides certain, historical instances concerning the use of violence by Buddhists, including acts of aggression committed by Buddhists with political and socio-cultural motivations, as well as self-inflicted violence by ascetics or for religious purposes. Despite these historical instances, as far as the Buddha’s teachings and scriptures are concerned, Buddhism forbids violence for resolving conflicts. Contemporary violence, or the promotion of violence, has been on the rise in some Buddhist communities, most notably the persecution of the Rohingya by the Myanmar government and Sri Lanka.

Radical Buddhist groups, such as the Bodu Bolu Sena (BBS) in Sri Lanka and Ma Ba Tha in Myanmar, justify intolerance, discrimination and violence against minority Muslim populations by using Theravada Buddhism, which is widely practised in South and Southeast Asia. If left unchecked, political violence will proliferate in Sri Lanka and Myanmar and could further spill over into nearby regions. As such, alternate narratives that support peace and religious pluralism need to be promoted. There is also a need for economic, political and social reforms to achieve long-term peace and stability.

Corruption and Muslims

Corruption should not exist in Muslim societies, because if Muslims read and follow the teachings of Quran, which emphasizes establishment of society based upon Commands of Allah, high morals, evident from a selection of 99 verses of Quran. But it has been undermined by other books so people feel that they do whatever, their sins will be washed away and paradise is waiting for them.  Faith and good deeds, both are required for salvation. Intercession is conditional and it’s up to God to grant permission for intercession.

The corruption of the clergy or institutions is one aspect which also includes financial corruption, but the bigger related issue is the corruption on Islamic thought. False dogmas have corrupted the Islamic thought. Muslims are following the footsteps of Jews and Christians, who undermined Torah and Gospels with human written books, warned by the Prophet (pbuh) and Rightly Guided Caliphs. The Truth must prevail.(Quran;61:9)