Musharraf advises people to elect honest candidates
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Thursday appealed to the nation to elect honest and dedicated candidates in the October elections in order to have clean leadership which should only serve the interests of the country.
“Politicians, bureaucrats, people of the armed forces and businessmen have been indulging in corrupt practices in one form or the other and that is why Rs1.3 trillion were eaten away during 1988 to 1999”, he further stated.
Inaugurating a seminar organized by Pakistan Chapter of the Transparency International, the president said he did not mean that all the politicians, bureaucrats, armed forces men and businessmen were corrupt and were involved in loot and plunder.
“There are good people who live every where in Pakistan but still there are others who do not believe in any morality and frequently indulge in corrupt practices”, he added.
The president said that there are 10 per cent people who are corrupt and another 10 per cent who are not corrupt in Pakistan. “And there are 80 per cent people who sway to any side whenever they get any opportunity therefore we must save them by providing equal opportunity to grow and by ensuring adequate pay structure and by giving them some better political system”, he added.
The seminar was attended by the leaders of some political parties including PML(N), PML(Q), MQM, PPP(S), Millat Party, Sindh Democratic Alliance and Jamaat-i-Islami(JI). However, no representative of the PPP and the PTI of Imran Khan attended the seminar.
The representative of those political parties who were present on the occasion signed a declaration pledging that they would not indulge in corrupt practices in case there parties came into power as a result of the Oct 10 elections.
The president claimed that higher level corruption did not exist in the country today and that his three years period have proved to be good compared to previous years.
“I am also declaring here that there has not been an increase of single penny in my assets eversince I took power”, he said. He also gave a personal commitment to remain honest.
He said Pakistan has come a long way since 1947 and during this period there had been development of infrastructure, roads, dams etc. “We have certainly achieved a lot during the last 50 years but we did not optimise our resources and one of the main reasons was the corruption”.
The president regretted today the majority of Pakistani people were pessimistic and that there was a general apathy which was surrounding the whole environment. He said he did not understand why people were so demoralized and even any thing good was done it was not recognized and appreciated. “Look we have taken a successful action against Al Qaeda in Karachi but people say it was due to Americans which is totally wrong as our people conducted the whole operation”, he said.
He also criticized the press for not playing its due role to project good things and expose the corrupt practices. The president said that corruption was seen in haves and have-nots. “Those who already possess great deal of wealth, they are greedy and always look for more ill-gotten money and those who do not have money, they think this is their right to have ill-gotten money”, he said.
He was of the view that corruption rose in Pakistan because there was no check and there was no accountability. At the same time he said that “there was no performance of the judiciary”.
The president said during his three years experience in the government, he has come to know many things about the corruption.
“First there is a corruption which is done with the connivance of politicians and the bureaucrats and they do not feel tired of eating development funds”, the president said.
“Foreign assistance coming in Pakistan is also consumed through the nexus of politician and bureaucrats. All kinds of development funds are eaten away at the federal, provincial and district level”, he said.
“Then the businessmen get loans from ADBP and other banks with the connivance of the bankers and do not return them due to which today our banks have gone bankrupt”.
“And then we witness nexus between the industrialists and the CBR people for tax evasion. Similarly, people in the armed forces indulge in corrupt practices specially in arms deals and other defence purchases”, the president said.
