Sunday, November 27, 2016

#Pakistan -‘Generals, judges, journalists must also be held accountable’

Senator Farhatullah Babar on Saturday highlighted the flaws in the accountability system and said that the fight against corruption could not be won unless and until it was across the board, with no sacred cows.
"Why the judges, generals and journalists cannot be held accountable through the same accountability mechanisms that investigate politicians and bureaucrats?" he asked while speaking at a dialogue organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in Lahore on accountability laws and policies in Pakistan. "Who will guard the guards and pass judgement on those judging others for corruption?" 
He said that fundamental issues - like exempting sacred cows from accountability, turning a blind eye to institutional corruption and misusing accountability for political re-engineering - had never been addressed, due to which anti-corruption laws and institutions were no more than a sham and a scam. He said that the argument that some institutions had their own accountability mechanisms was a sham. "It has no credibility and is widely perceived as an escape from accountability."
The senator said that the single most effective remedy against corruption was transparency and the tearing apart of the shroud of secrecy.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/punjab/27-Nov-16/generals-judges-journalists-must-also-be-held-accountable

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