Murtaza Bhutto

ulers. Surely, corruption is a crime and all those who indulge in corrupt
practices are sources of spreading corruption further down the line and
deserve to be convicted. Corruption does make the governments poorer and
the corrupt richer. Reputation of corrupt practices is as bad as the corrupt
practice itself. And in this regard Nawaz Sharif's period is only surpassed by
Benazir's, at least in reputation. These two leave the rulers of the rest of the
forty-five-year period of Pakistan far behind.
But corruption is a symptom and not the disease, which is: the absence of the
rule of law and of the process of accountability under it. When individuals in
the apparatus of the state assume the role of the state in their discretion, they
'tax' citizens and corporations in favour of their own pocket. The rule of law
gets replaced by the rule of the individual, in other words anarchy.
A change in the system of governance is now required. We must have a
democracy where powers of accountability rest with the institutions of the
people and not with the institutions of the elites. Political, economic and
social power must be decentralised in all the organs of the state, legislative,
judicial and executive, and transferred to the institutions of the people. But
that will take time. The ruling elites of Pakistan, and for that matter of India
and Bangladesh, still seem distant from the point of diagnosing the disease
that afflicts their land.
Meanwhile, Benazir is best advised to abdicate. Our system of governance
demands that the prime minister bears the responsibility for the gigantic
blunders committed by Islamabad during the last three years. She must
reflect over what has happened to Pakistan, Sindh, Karachi and 70 Clifton.
The sacrifice her family has been forced to make is enormous. If she quits
now, she is young enough to be called back again-ten, fifteen years later. She
should inform the president of her desire to leave office and request him to
make arrangements for her succession. That is what presidents are for.
Murtaza Bhutto; Copyright © www.bhutto.org
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