Transparency: Military and the Political Parties’ Budgets
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
There is something more enigmatic in Pakistan than our nuclear arsenal. There is one subject that nobody can discuss, where all tongues are tied and the freedom of speech is clipped. There is one entity that is guarded ferociously by the military and cocooned under the layers of secrecy. There is one article more precious than the collective will of the people. This would be the highly classified information shared only with the most patriotic military officers: the defense budget of Pakistan.
Having said that, we also realize it is not the only surreptitious financial matter to be concerned about. We have bigger fish (plural) to fry, one of which is unfortunately covered thickly with our democratic process. Ingeniously, political parties have kept it under wraps to evade attention and have discouraged it being discussed freely. At the same time, civil society has not attempted hard enough to make it the focus of our national discourse. Even our aggressive and assertive electronic media is relatively quiet on this subject and refers to it occasionally just as a hiccup in some of its programs.
Indeed, I am referring to the utter absence of accountability in the annual budgets, political fundraising and campaign financing of almost all political parties of Pakistan. Although the emphasis cannot be taken completely away from the transparency in military spending, the disclosure of the secretive resources of parties is equally important for our national security. Over decades, the practice of stealthy fund raising has raised questions about its legitimacy and has undoubtedly harmed the democratic process. Not only that, the accounts of the large political parties in due course have regrettably emerged as personal assets of their party chiefs, given to their children as if it was their family inheritance.
Combined, the amount may exceed millions of dollars in net worth, which makes these leaders extremely powerful and rich at the same time. In a way, this practice might be the single most important reason for the skyrocketing corruption in our society since it can technically allow the criminals, without any fear of retribution, to contribute millions under the table to the election campaigns, both locally and nationally, to get a free ride in future.
Coming to military spending, we all agree in principle that Pakistanis should be able to skim through the details of defense spending. We believe that even a little civilian involvement can bring enormous transparency in military expenditures. After being established, the system can be extremely productive in the growth of all institutions through its objective, unbiased and neutral analyses. Although these tasks are not easy to perform since the civilians’ modus operandi is slow and messy and not nearly as disciplined as that of the armed forces, but once consensus has been developed, it can yield far-reaching benefits for the nation’s safety and security.
Then there is the transparency in the political fund-raising and campaign financing. In the best of circumstances, most political parties compel their candidates to donate ‘heavily’ before the elections as the contenders apply for the party’s official nomination. The amount of ‘donation’ varies in every election and every party, depending upon multiple factors including, but not limited to, the inclination of the caretaker government and the establishment, the incumbency factor, party performance and the popular or rhetorical appeal. As we dig deeper the financial picture gets more opaque; we find that the parties also (allegedly) convince some resourceful and ‘interested businessmen’ to invest in the party’s future and insure their own. The amount of information available to the public about how the whole system works is minimal. Based on some factual details and mostly hearsay information -- since no documentation is released to the public -- one thing can easily be surmised: if the regularization of the defense budget is an arduous task, the channelization of the political party fund-raising would be like passing a camel through the eye of a needle.
Focusing again on the military, most experts agree that for the sake of our infallible national security, employment of an independent and transparent audit system that provides far more comprehensive analysis than the current internal financial reviews can do wonders. It can further transform our army into a purely professional, more modern and robust force that never compromises on protecting our constitution. It is also true that over the last few years, this process has already started and we have witnessed a little more cooperation between parliament and the military hierarchy on this issue, which is commendable. Although it needs to be nurtured on a war footing, nevertheless this beginning in itself is a big milestone. The same principle holds true for the political system too where parties carry an organized and unconcealed fund-raising platform, run an accountable campaign financing department and ensure free information about their independently audited funds. Charity is effective only when it begins at home, making it the responsibility of the political parties to come clean first.
(The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KamraanHashmi and can be reached at kamranhashmi@gmail.com )
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