LAHORE, Nov 25: Governor Khalid Maqbool said here on Thursday that corruption was a global human problem which should be tackled with a holistic approach and not merely through ruthless enforcement of law.

"Corruption erodes society and state and, therefore, needs a comprehensive response. A surgical approach proves counter-productive. Awareness about corruption and its prevention is more important than the enforcement of laws to curb it," he said.

The governor was speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day international conference on combating corruption in South Asia here being held by NAB (National Accountability Bureau) at a local hotel.

The governor said when corruption existed all over the world one could not enforce laws in isolation to prevent it in one country. "We need to be a part of the global effort to combat it," he said.

He said for controlling corruption there should be an evolutionary democracy with good governance as the guiding principle, and a free economy based on fair competition. The governor said corruption was eroding moral fabric of societies in South Asia.

Therefore, it was necessary to adopt a holistic approach as a part of a global effort to curb it. International agencies should get together for controlling money laundering.

"Enforcement of an anti-corruption policy without the political will and support of the people would hurt. It is not wise to make industrialists go out of the country with their money through a stringent policy. You would have to reduce opportunities for corruption and simplify the complicated system which breeds it," he said.

The governor said corruption was as a human problem. "In poor countries it leads to less development which hurts everybody. It leads to inequality in countries like Pakistan and denial of admission to a poor's son must be a source of concern because such incidents make people lose confidence in the society and adopt negative means which is dangerous," he said

He said it should be seen as to how right incentives could be given to all people to curb tendencies among them to become corrupt. He suggested that corruption could be controlled with better detection, swift justice, in depth and professional neutral audit of accounts, improvement in anti-corruption laws, capacity building of the watchdog agencies, introduction of real democracy, good governance, rule of law, and free market with good regulations.

The governor said there was a need to build a natural alliance against corruption between government, civil society and the private sector. He said the role of NAB had been criticized but this was a reality that the Musharraf government had taken the difficult decision of implementing an anti-corruption policy in the country, arresting high-profile people and even senior military officers.