When Corruption Kills!

In an op-ed piece that appeared in The News of August 1, 2019, I wrote: 

Corruption ... upends lives and shatters dreams. It has a multi-generational calamitous effect. When public sector corruption results in loss of life, its negative consequences can well be compared to those of terrorism. Link here.

I quoted Prof. Michael Johnston of Colgate University to describe systemic corruption, which creates an inexorable feedback loop in which malfeasance at the higher levels of governance intensifies incidence of ordinary bribery, fraud and extortionary practices at the lower levels.

My point was that the rulers can easily find public funds to finance a lavish lifestyle for themselves and to shower favors on their supporters. But they do not want to provide basic infrastructure and facilities for hospital and schools and invest in other essential social services for people. I gave the following examples, which show how the ruling elites' indifference results in catastrophic consequences for individuals, families, communities and generations.

1. On September 1, 2007, a portion of a newly constructed Northern Bypass flyover at Sher Shah, Karachi, collapsed killing at least five people and injuring many others. Among the killed were three sole breadwinners of their families and a young student. 

   

   A few hours after the collapse of the Sher Shah flyover (Source: Dawn)

   The bridge was built at a cost of about Rs. 3.5 billion and was inaugurated with great fanfare just a month earlier by no less than the President of Pakistan. The project was executed by the National Highways Authority (NHA) through the National Logistics Cell (NLC), which had subcontracted it to a private firm. An inquiry committee, later, determined that “neglect” and “design fault” were the root causes of the collapse.
2. On July 2, 2015, a special train carrying soldiers of Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers derailed at a bridge on a canal near Gujranwala that left 19 of its passengers dead and scores injured. 

   

   Rescue operations after the train fell off the bridge (Source: AFP)

   The investigation report attributed the cause of the accident to an ill-maintained railway track whose joints had come loose and to a creaky pre-partition bridge.
   
   A few days later, social media carried a picture taken just before the train’s departure from the Pano Akil Railway Station of one of the officers and his family - all of whom died in the accident. 

   

   The Jadoon family a while before the ill-fated train departed (Source: Twitter)

   The picture depicted a happy family with smiles and hopes of a more rewarding future. But that was never to be because of the action or inaction on part of some corrupt and indifferent people somewhere in some department or bureau.
3. When an overturned oil tanker caught fire at Ahmedpur East near Lodhran in June 2017, more than 100 people died within a few minutes, but dozens more later succumbed to their injuries as there was no standard burns unit in the area hospitals within a couple of hours drive.
4. After the terrorist attack at a mosque in Shikarpur in 2015, scores of people died on the spot, but the death count substantially increased as there was no well-equipped trauma center outside the remote cities of Hyderabad and Karachi.

Professor Johnston believes that just "relying on 'political will' to fight corruption is 'magical thinking'." Then what course of action remains? I think most people will endorse that dealing with corruption requires a multilevel, multi-institutional and multi-dimensional approach – an action plan involving some concerted, concrete and consistent measures. A good example to follow is that of China, which has been quite ruthless in dealing with its corrupt government functionaries. We do not tire of lavishing praise on that country for its spectacular economic progress and development. It's time we also followed China in practice and adopted some of the measures it has taken to tame the monster of corruption and build its institutions.