With the extent of corruption as we have in Pakistan, it will not be an exaggeration to say that anything can be done or had in this country if you are able to pay the "right" price. Keep ratcheting up the stake and the "characters" will ultimately buckle and sell their mother/country/honor.... Corrupt elites/ rulers use brazen violation of merit as their ultimate weapon to maintain and bolster their "social controls." The resultant cronyism adversely affects governance and causes the collapse of social delivery infrastructures. This decay goes hand-in-hand with pervasive injustices and atrocities that lead to violence and all types of social strife. Corruption hollows institutions and leads to their total collapse. A country hollowed institutionally cannot survive economically.
When corruption results in economic collapse and ruins the future of generations, it can be termed as heinous a crime as "genocide." When corruption putrefies the structures of governance, it causes the nation to fail and makes the country susceptible to subjugation before its enemies. In that case, corruption can very rightly be likened to "high treason."
Here I portray the catastrophic effects of high-level/ political corruption graphically.