Tax dodgers ‘escape’ Pak poll scrutiny
After a week of bizarre scrutiny of candidates for Pakistan’s election, fears are growing that the process has failed to weed out the bribe-takers and tax-dodgers it was meant to target.
Pakistanis go to the polls on May 11 in a general election that should see power pass from a civilian government that has served a full term to another through the ballot box for the first time in the nuclear-armed country’s turbulent history.
There has been furious debate about the process of vetting candidates for the National Assembly, after returning officers grilled them on Islamic prayers and rituals and even hit them with baffling general knowledge questions. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has warned that the scrutiny process had turned into a “witch hunt aimed at harassing and humiliating candidates” and was undermining democracy.
Two clauses of the Pakistani constitution requiring lawmakers to be knowledgeable about Islam and follow Islamic injunctions lie behind the questioning.
They were introduced by military dictator Zia-ul Haq in the 1980s but lay largely ignored until cleric Tahir-ul Qadri recently launched an anti-corruption campaign, leading tens of thousands of protesters into the streets demanding rigorous scrutiny of politicians.
Qadri’s message struck a chord in a country plagued by corruption, where politicians are notoriously venal and few MPs pay tax.
Sarwar Bari of the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), an independent group which monitors elections in Pakistan, said the returning officers, who have rejected 1,209 out of 8,059 national assembly nominations, had missed the key issue.
“In my view corrupt politicians have been given clearance and that is very sad. It has damaged people’s trust in the whole process,” he said.
“The biggest issue in Pakistan is corruption and that has not been addressed — no politician so far has been disqualified on that basis.”
A report in December found that two thirds of federal lawmakers paid no tax the previous year despite an estimated average net wealth of nearly $ 900,000, and some of the most prominent MPs have faced major corruption allegations.
Under the constitution, anyone who fails to pay their taxes or utility bills or who has outstanding debts of over two million rupees ($ 20,000), is disqualified from running for Parliament.
Two of the country’s leading English-language newspapers ran editorials on Thursday denouncing the apparent failure to apply the rule.
“Not being able to recite Qur’anic verses became ground for disqualification but financial impropriety is apparently considered more kosher,” wrote the Express Tribune. The News lambasted the “dismal, disappointing and shameful” amount of tax paid by MPs in the past three years and voiced surprise that “not one big name has been disqualified for not paying taxes or defaulting on bank loans.”
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
