ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that countries were economically destroyed by corruption of rulers, not bribery of government officials.

He said the countries suffered bankruptcy and became indebted when the head of state or government and ministers were corrupt, not because of bribery by low level officials.

“When low level officials take bribes it creates problems for the citizens as bribe is like a tax they pay but countries go bankrupt and become indebted when the head of state/government and his ministers are corrupt,” the prime minister said in a tweet.

He also shared an excerpt of the “Memorandum on Establishing the Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest” recently issued by US President Joe Biden directing senior US officials to conduct an interagency review process and develop a presidential strategy to improve the ability of executive departments to promote good governance, combat all forms of illicit finance, hold accountable corrupt elements and their facilitators and bolster capacity of domestic and international institutions to prevent corruption.

The beginning paragraph of the Memorandum says: “Corruption corrodes public trust; hobbles effective governance; distorts markets and equitable access to services; undercuts development efforts; contributes to national fragility, extremism, and migration; and provides authoritarian leaders a means to undermine democracies worldwide. When leaders steal from their nations’ citizens or oligarchs flout the rule of law, economic growth slows, inequality widens, and trust in government plummets.”

In a separate tweet, the prime minister, thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for commending Pakistan’s efforts to protect environment through different key measures.

President Xi had given these remarks in his message read out by Chinese ambassador during an international conference hosted by Pakistan on the occasion of World Environment Day on Saturday.

President Xi had said in his message: “China commends Pakistan’s commitment (to ecosystem restoration), and stands ready to work with Pakistan and the rest of international community to step up cooperation within the UN framework…”

Noting the significance of UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, President Xi had said the thematic activities held by Pakistan were of great importance.

Prime Minister Khan said in his tweet: “I thank President Xi’s strong message on World Environment Day 2021 hosted by Pakistan reflecting our commitment to counter environment degradation. We laud Pres Xi’s leadership in combating climate change & biodiversity loss & his offer to step up cooperation on ecosystem restoration.”

During the conference world leaders praised efforts of the Pakistani nation led by Mr Khan to tackle impacts of environmental degradation with a number of mega initiatives, particularly by achieving the target of planting one billion trees under Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his video message had said: “I salute what Prime Minister Imran Khan has done in promising to plant 10 billion trees [in Pakistan].”

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2021