Defense Spending Goes Up by 20%

Pakistan’s defence expenditures may exceed the budgetary allocation of Rs343 billion by about 20 per cent during the current fiscal year because of the military operation against militants.

The expenditures were estimated to be somewhere between Rs400 billion and Rs410 billion, up by around Rs70 billion against the allocation of Rs343 billion.

The security expenditures had gone beyond Rs40 billion a month much more than the average monthly expenditures.

The security-related expenditures in Waziristan were much higher than during the operation in Swat.

Last year, an amount of Rs296 billion was allocated in budget for defence. This was, however, twice revised upwards, first to Rs311 billion and then to Rs329 billion, up by 11 per cent over the budget estimates.

The security expenditures were higher than expected. Because of higher than estimated expenditures, the revenue target for the current year has increased from Rs1,380 billion to Rs1,396 billion.

Receivables from the United States under the coalition support fund currently stood at $1.4 billion that would reach $2.4 billion by June 2010.

The government was expecting to get about $500 million in about a month.

Pakistan is expectng to get about $874 million during the current fiscal year. Energy-related expenditures had also been higher than anticipated.

77 NRO Beneficiaries in the Punjab

The government of the Punjab has sent to the PPP Government a list of 77 beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance whose cases were disposed of after Feb 5, 2008.

The list includes names of 17 politicians, a couple of businessmen and a large number of government employees.

Prominent among the politicians are Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Jehangir Badar of the PPP.

Four former legislators of the PML-N are also on the list.

The list pertains only to cases disposed of by courts in Punjab.

The cases, relating to charges of corruption, misuse of authority, misappropriation of government funds or property and assets beyond means and forgery, involved a total amount of about Rs14 billion and they were disposed of between March 2008 and April 2009.

The largest amount involved in a case is of $170 million in assets beyond means. It is against Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, a former MNA.

It is followed by Rs260 million (misuse of authority) against Malik Mushtaq Ahmad Awan.

The list prepared by the National Accountability Bureau, Punjab, also gives details of the case numbers along with charges, amount involved and the dates of their disposal/termination by the courts under the NRO 2007.

Beneficiaries among politicians include Malik Mushtaq Ahmad Awan, Ishtiaq Ahmad Awan, Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, Chaudhry Kabir Ahmad, Jehangir Badar, Rana Nazir Ahmed, Nusrat Bhutto, Chaudhry Abdul Hameed, Sardar Muhammad Nasim, Mian Tariq Mahmood, Muhammad Asad Lali, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, Murid Ahmed Baloch, Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, Tariq Anees and Haji Kabir Khan.

The bureaucrats who benefited from the NRO include Muhammad Ahmad Sadiq (former principal secretary to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto), former chief secretary of Punjab Javaid Qureshi, former chairman of the Wildlife Department Abuzar Jafarry, Imtiaz Qadir, Shaukat Ali Maiken, Mian Muhammad Rashid, Hanif Ahmad Rahi, Abbas Ahmed, Muhammad Safdar, Amjad Hussain Sandal and Syed Zahid Hussain.

Other civil servants include Sadiq Muhammad, Chaudhry Muhammad Siddique, Ghulam Mustafa, Muhammad Hanif, Sadiq Muhammad, Samira Amjad, Mirza Sher Muhammad, Rashid Ahmed Patwari, Liaqat Ali, Naeemuddin, Anwar Hussain, Muhammad Usman, Arshad Mehmood, Muhammad Akhtar and Waheedur Rehman.

Some other bureaucrats are Muhammad Arshad of Wapda, Sardar Ali, Nadir Khan and Hakim Din of Nadra, Shaukat Hussain Shah, Maqbool Ahmed, Amanullah Sindhu and Hameedur Rehman of Passco.

About 15 employees of the Wildlife Department, accused of embezzling public money, were also absolved under the NRO.

It may be mentioned that any law could be challenged for judicial review or examination from the standpoint of fundamental rights.

Corruption Increasing Under PPP Rule

In its Corruption Perception Index for 2009, the Transparency International has placed Pakistan at the 42nd place, slipping five places from 2008 when it was at 47.

Most of the 180 countries included in the 2009 index scored below 5 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).

There are some bright spots in the report — Bangladesh, Belarus, Guatemala, Lithuania, Poland and Syria are among the countries that have improved the most. The highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0.

Due to lack of governance and massive corruption, Pakistan has lost credibility and is facing serious economic threats, poverty, inflation, food and electricity shortages and increase in unemployment.

There is a need for the government to make serious efforts to apply rules and regulations across the board to achieve the goal of reducing corruption but this is unlikely with the present set of corrupt and indifferent rulers. 

Pakistan needs good governance and a transparent administration to counter corruption scams of billions of rupees in Pakistan Steel, TDAP, EOBI, PIA, rental power plants, KESC, NIC, NHA, OGDC, PSO, PEPCO, CDA, DP Division, DHAs, TCP, NBP, PC and many other organisations.

The political will of the government to curb corruption is urgently required and it must also be seen by public and donor countries, like formation of an independent accountability commission as required by the UN Convention against Corruption. This commission should report only to parliament or judiciary and not to the ministry of law, and it should look into corruption of all holders of public offices belonging to civil services, armed forces, judiciary and elected representatives.