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LORD Acton’s adage should read that power corrupts, but the absence of power corrupts absolutely. Wealth has become a step up in the ladder to power. Tainted wealth is the express lift to the top.
Whereas some countries are free of natural diseases like polio or smallpox, there is yet to be one declared free of corruption. It is like Covid, a man-made virus.
Pakistan has amended its present Constitution 27 times. It needs to amend the motto bequeathed by our founder. To ‘unity, faith and discipline’ should now be added a fourth — ‘corruption’. It is no longer a vice. It is an imperative, a prerequisite to gain power and the beneficial consequence of exercising it.
According to Transparency International, Pakistan can be found on its scale of corruption somewhere between Ukraine and Afghanistan. These countries, in the words of the French essayist, J. Giradoux, “are like fruit — the worms are always inside”.
‘Old sins have long shadows.’
Recently, Andriy Yermak (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trusted chief of staff) has been accused of corruption, and removed. The corruption of Zelensky’s predecessors — presidents Kuchma (1994-2005) and Yushchenko (2005-2010) caused the US to refer to Ukraine as ‘a kleptocracy’.
Despite the ongoing war with Russia (or because of it), Ukraine continues to benefit from the indulgent largesse of the US, the EU and the IMF. Since 2014, the US has provided over $114 billion, the EU and 27 member states made available $197bn, and in November 2025, the IMF and Ukraine reached a deal on a four-year Extended Fund Facility (worth approximately $8.2bn).
Take Afghanistan. According to reports, in 2010, Afghan president Hamid Karzai declared an official salary of $525, less than $20,000 in the bank and no investment in land. By 2025, his assets were estimated to be around $25 million. His brother Mahmood Karzai began with a modest $12m in 2010. He is now worth $900m. Close behind is Fahim Hashimy ($750m) who began as an interpreter for the US forces.
Until the IMF suspended aid to Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in 2021, it had provided $370m Extended Credit Facility and approximately $220m in emergency assistance. Until the Taliban return Bagram air base and other assets to the US, the Taliban might like to tap the Karzai brothers and Hashimy to meet their national deficit.
A condition of the IMF’s latest support to Ukraine expects it to implement “a set of fiscal and monetary policies […] maintaining macroeconomic stability, restoring debt sustainability and external viability, tackling corruption [italics added], and improving governance”.
Its recent Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Report on Pakistan admits that “Pakistan’s governance indicators consistently rank poorly, reflecting weaknesses in controlling corruption, enforcing contracts, and protecting property rights”. And yet the IMF entertains the entreaties of Pakistani governments of every hue (right, left and khaki) for bailouts. Since 1958, Pakistan has applied to the IMF 25 times.
In dealing with chronic borrowers like Pakistan, the IMF uses the carrot-and-stick approach, except that its carrot is always longer than its stick. Its exhortation ‘to tackle corruption’ are akin to a governess’s admonitions.
The report speaks without naming them of “privileged actors” extracting “undue benefits”. With this in mind, Pakistani voters in the next general election due in 2029 might like to compare declaration of assets by their leaders.
They should access the Free and Fair Election Network. Its website discloses the self-declared net worth of our legislators since 2002, as submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan. According to Fafen, President Asif Ali Zardari’s net worth increased from Rs671m (2017-18) to Rs2.03bn in 2024. Over the same period, his son Bilawal’s net worth crept from Rs1.54 bn to Rs1.99bn.
Punjab’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif declared her net worth at Rs838m (2024). Her uncle Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s net worth decreased from Rs306m in 2017-18 to Rs73m in 2024. Imran Khan’s net worth has oscillated from Rs55m (2002-3) to a high of Rs197m (2019-20).
Politicians do not expect to spend their greying years in jail. Certainly the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy had not planned to, but then as the saying goes, ‘old sins have long shadows’. His involvement as budget minister in the sale of three Agosta-class submarines worth $900m to us in the 1990s has been one of the charges against him.
The Roman senator Tacitus warned: “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous its laws.” Are laws (as the IMF advises) sufficient to prevent corruption? Both Ukraine and Pakistan have national accountability bureaus. Laws and NABs clearly are not the curative for this man-made virus.
The writer is an author.
Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2025
