GOVERNMENT servants in our country cannot be absolved of complicity in the massive corruption that has plagued this country for long. One has to look no further than investigating the assets of civil servants who have served as principal or personal secretary to the prime minister or president, and other senior bureaucrats to prove my point.

Thousands of acres of state land have been illegally occupied in complicity with the bureaucracy. Billions of rupees in taxes are evaded with the collusion of public office holders. Food adulteration has assumed epidemic proportions because the state has failed to enforce its mandatory constitutional regulatory controls. The same is the case with other public utilities. We have laws to prevent such crimes but they have never been implemented.

It is a norm that those holding paid or elected public office must not have any conflicts of interest. Yet every paid public office holder, including politicians are involved in developing housing societies and getting contracts through front men while the masses thirst for — and the pun is intended — clean drinking water.

The interests of 200 million plus people cannot be sacrificed at the altar of insatiable greed of a few, nor should they escape accountability of the stringent variety.

Gull Zaman

Peshawar

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018