Pakistani minister’s diktat: end corruption in 7 days

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has given heads of various departments under his ministry a one week deadline to end corruption.

Heads of departments would be responsible for monitoring corruption in their departments and they have been given a period of one week, till Nov 7, to eliminate corruption, Malik said during his visit to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters here.

He directed the agency to adopt a zero-tolerance policy regarding criminal activities and added that the accountability process would start from the FIA, the News International reported Monday.

The minister said action would be taken against extortionists and a special helpline would be established.

He said 5,000 jobs would be created in the FIA and stated that womens quota had been raised to 25 percent in the agency.

Rejecting the Transparency International (TI) report that said Pakistan had climbed up the corruption index from the 42nd position in 2009 to 34th this year, Rehman Malik claimed that whenever there was a crisis, the TI became active.

The Pakistan chapter of Transparency International (TIP) has identified corruption cases worth Rs.300 billion in different federal government departments last year alone.

Malik said the TI’s aim was only to stop foreign aid to Pakistan. He said this happened at the time the quake hit Pakistan in 2005; at the time when Kerry Lugar Bill was being debated, again when floods hit Pakistan.

Over 20 million people were affected and 1,700 people lost their lives in the floods that ravaged Pakistan this year.