Pakistan is a country plagued with countless issues that affect its development.

Whether the issue is low GDP per capita, underfunded institutions and services or a
poor implementation of legislation, I would like to argue that it all boils down to
corruption in the state of Pakistan. This can be seen as how corruption often leads to the
frequent money laundering done by officials and this money was supposed to be for
institutions. I would also like to go over how culture and history are intertwined with
this issue.

Firstly, I would like to cover how the institutions in Pakistan are corrupt, the main
causes based on research are, a lack of budget and resources, underfunded institutions,
poor implementation of legislation and lack of qualified personnel in these institutions.
An example of unqualified or uncompetent personnel having political roles is when the
ruling party gives out political positions to its loyal supporters who are unfit for the
position (Wheatland and Transparency International 3). According to an article, “Why
Do Anti-Corruption Campaigns Fail in Pakistan” by Malik Nadeem, political entities even
use development funds to increase chances of reelection. These very funds were meant
to improve infrastructure, education, healthcare and fund other institutions. It is even
more ironic to me that Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau fails to succeed in its
job of tackling corruption with Pakistan’s corruption score being a whopping 28, which
means it is very corrupt. For me it seems like Pakistani politicians are only there for
self-interest and their own gain rather than the Pakistani nation’s. I think if a competent
leader who truly cared for Pakistan over everything else, was in power, incompetency
would be low and most institutions wouldn’t, like the police, be taking bribes.

Secondly, I think connecting corruption to culture is key to understanding its

prevalence. Nadeem’s article also states the fact that Pakistan’s culture is one in which
mainly one’s clan or caste is consulted rather than the whole population. You may ask,
“Why?”, well, this is the result of military rule in Pakistan (Nadeem). During military
rule from 1977-1988, non-partisan elections were held. This meant that there were no
political parties and only individual candidates. These candidates would then aim to
gain the vote of individuals from their respective caste or clan rather than the whole
population. Once an election was won by a candidate, “…development funds [were used] to
boost their [candidate’s] chances of re-election” (Nadeem). According to Dr. Nadeem,
patron-client politics has prevented separation of state and society leading to the state
not being called to account by its people. Not only the culture, but the state also has
restrictions in place on information and criticism regarding the topics of military and
judiciary. This is mainly due to legislation like the Official Secrets Act in which the state
is allowed to limit speech regarding the former and latter (Wheatland and Transparency
International 9). This is not more towards culture, but I would also like to say that the
Right to Information Act actually is still rather restrictive regarding the topics
mentioned previously and even if citizens were to request information, only 60% of the
population would actually understand since the rest is illiterate (Naya Daur Media). I
think that if the state was more open to its people, and informed people of their rights, it
would allow citizens to build trust in their state and call it to account. Another important
thing would be improving education and infrastructure as many areas that don’t have
education are mainly ones that don’t have good roads or buildings.

To conclude, I think controlling corruption is a far-fetched dream if Pakistan’s

political culture and institutes are not transformed. Corruption has already impacted the
efficiency and performance of the state in several services like the judiciary and police.
These services then impact the population in ways such as taking bribes or taking too
long to resolve a legal case as with the judiciary. I would say that 3 steps that could be
taken to control corruption in the state of Pakistan is encouraging democracy, being
accountable to the whole population and informing people of their rights.

Works Cited

Wheatland, Ben, and Transparency International. Pakistan: Overview of Corruption and

Anti-Corruption Efforts. U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, 29 June 2015. U4

Anti-Corruption Resource Centre,

www.u4.no/publications/pakistan-overview-of-corruption-and-anti-corruption-efforts.pdf.

Accessed 29 June 2015.

A report on corruption in Pakistan. I intend to use this report for a basic

introduction and overview on corruption in Pakistan, it should lay the foundation

for my presentation and the information I gain from other sources.

Malik, Nadeem, Dr. "Why Do Anti-Corruption Campaigns Fail in Pakistan?" University of

Melbourne, U of Melbourne, 29 July 2021,

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/why-do-anti-corruption-campaigns-fail-in-pakistan.

An analysis on why anti-corruption campaigns continue to fail in Pakistan. This

source will be important for me, providing a reason for why Pakistan has been
 unsuccessful in holding anti-corruption campaigns and in some cases has led to

the opposite of what was expected.

Naya Daur Media. "Why Officials Get Away with Corruption in Pakistan." Naya Daur Media,

Medium,

medium.com/@nayadaurpk/why-officials-get-away-with-corruption-in-pakistan-9ce68bb

b94ab.

Another source for understanding why corruption is so prevalent. This source

goes into, firstly, even if people have the RTI act, only ~60% of Pakistanis are

literate. It also gives statistics and patterns that have been found in corrupt

countries. I intend to use this source to propose some reasons as to why corruption

is so easy to get away with for officials.

Ali, Kashif. "Pakistan: The Power of Being Informed." Voices for Transparency, Transparency

International, 28 Sept. 2021,

www.transparency.org/en/blog/pakistan-power-of-being-informed-right-to-information.

Overcoming corruption requires many processes and a lot of time but one of the

processes is information being accessible to the public regarding the government.

This also requires citizens being aware of the RTI act and being literate enough to

understand these documents. This will be used as one of my key sources in my

presentation for possible solutions to corruption in Pakistan.