From the public service, public
interest, and bureaucratic perspectives, corruption can be defined as:
1. "any conduct that strays from the normal duties inherent to the public
welfare as a result of private interests, be they family, clan, or friendship,
to obtain personal benefit in money or social status;"
2. "any violation of the public interest to obtain special advantages;" or
3. Illicit conduct used by individuals or groups to gain influence over the
bureaucracy's actions."
The Narco-corruption is related to the drugs, it may be found in the agencies
which are to counter the drugs or the officials of high rank, as reported by
international agencies, regarding inter-country, likewise the political
personnel and international channels. The Smugglers dealing in narcotics usually
found to overcome the high rank officials of agencies or the personnel of such
agencies themselves involve facilitating the drug barons in their illegal drug
trafficking business. Especially the drug smugglers related to Aghanistan and
African countries have links with the highest officials of international
agencies which is also reported in many cases.
Although corruption is not exclusive to illegal drug trafficking, given its
great economic power and illegal nature, many cases are indeed related to the
drug trade. In different countries corruption cases involving politics and
illegal drug trafficking have quantitatively and qualitatively increased,
especially from 1988 to the present. International pressures have involved
national police and military forces without possibilities for outside control.
Recent events in Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and
Peru, Pakistan, Afghanistan, USA, Canada, Belgium and UK demonstrate to what
extent this phenomenon occurs in Latin American countries and others in Asian
and EU countries. Public corruption exists in all societies to such an extent
that it has become a serious socio-political problem in the past years. Though
steps had and are being taken by the legislators in different punitive forms but
even then the lobby of illegal traffickers of drugs and weapons found few
officials of their own intent and cause leakage to the government functionaries.
Thus the name and fame of state become a question to the rest of the world. This
is especially done in the high rank protocols when elite class travels with bulk
of other officials and representatives as noted in recent past history.
Corruption jeopardizes democratic stability and is a serious obstacle to
guaranteeing a countries' governance, ability and the national security of
societies. Along with the economic and social costs incurred, the political
consequences are also serious in terms of public sector corruption, because they
endanger the governments' credibility and legitimacy. This is especially true in
the current climate of "structural adjustment" and "stabilization" programs,
where governments impose austerity and sacrifice on the population.
On the fringes of Peshawar as you head towards the Khyber Pass is the Smugglers'
Bazaar (Karkhanai Bazaar). It thrives openly on the sale of goods imported
through Pakistan for Afghanistan, then smuggled back through the Tribal Areas to
avoid paying duty. Everything is available here from cut-price electronics to
clothes and stationery to weapons and drugs etc. It's an enormous trade that
costs Pakistan millions of dollars annually in lost revenue - enough money to
generate the bribes that allow the market to flourish. Foreigners are prohibited
from entering the far end of the bazaar where guns and drugs are openly on sale
- a barrier prevents accidental entry. The Smugglers' Bazaar and Darra Adam Khel
have long been part of the Peshawar tourist experience, and feature on most
local guides' itineraries (routs). After all, what other holiday destination
offers the chance to see blocks of opium and fire a Kalashnikov? But while guns
have long been a part of Pashtun culture (drugs too, although to a much lesser
extent {as then was} but not now), if you're planning a visit it's worth
spending a moment considering where the backhanders your guide pays to the
dealers are going.
There is plenty of cannabis / hashish on offer in the bazaar, but the big money
comes from opiates. 98% of the heroin sold in Peshawar comes from Afghanistan,
part of the trade that threatens the Afghan state through institutional narco-corruption
as well as funding the Taliban insurgency. The trade provides 90% of Europe's
heroin, although the Smugglers' Bazaar mainly serves Pakistan's rapidly growing
population of heroin addicts. If you visit the bazar you may see bags of heroin
while ignoring the addicts squalidly smoking the drug on the carpets behind him.
The drug-funded insurgency is also bringing boom times for the gun shops. The
price of AK47s going through the roof due in large part needed to radicals
wanting to 'do jihad' in Afghanistan and Waziristan against Russian in past and
now against US marine forces and Nato forces. Tourism doesn't come much darker
than in Pakistan's Tribal Areas. An official crackdown on the trade saw this
part of the bazaar bulldozed in early 2007, but it was quickly rebuilt - with
the police officer leading the raid murdered a fortnight later.
As big as these challenges were, there were even bigger ones. A lot of
intelligence — much of it unclassified and possible to discuss here — indicated
that senior Afghan officials were deeply involved in the narcotics trade. Narco-traffickers
were buying off hundreds of police chiefs, judges and other officials. Narco-corruption
went to the top of the Afghan government. Corruption plays a central role in the
drug tracking and the related “war” that have violently scarred countries of
world in recent years. Corruption facilitates the operation of states vast and
powerful criminal-business enterprises while simultaneously debilitating the
state’s efforts to confront them. In fact, corruption makes it difficult at
times to differentiate violators from enforcers.
It is also seriously observed by the then Chief Justice of Pakistan, while
hearing the Karachi Law and Order Petition (KARACHI BE AMNI CASE) that a major
portion of Narco Money is used in terrorism generally in the whole of country
and specially in Karachi. The relevant agencies were also tasked to do the
needful regarding the neo trend of money laundering and Norco-money used in
terrorism. The result is yet to be seen in coming days. Use of weapon and drugs
simultaneously cannot be discarded straightaway.
But corruption and the structural weaknesses characterizing state’s institutions
of justice are hardly not fully equipped with modern facilities training etc to
the judges, staff and Law Enforcement Agencies. Corruption has long shaped the
politics and the drug trade, yet never have these factors conspired to generate
the degree of violence, brutality, and instability seen in recent years. It is
historical paradox—wherein drug-related corruption once contributed to or at
least coexisted with low levels of violence and relative stability but now fuels
the opposite—raises questions about the shifting patterns of corruption, the
threads that tie it to drug trafficking and violence, and the dynamics unleashed
on organized crime.
Though steps are being taken by the Government of Pakistan in shape of
establishment of FMU at State Bank of Pakistan, Karachi to check the CTR and STR
but since 2010 no major achievement has come forth. It is worth to noting that
whatever is illegal and offence for an agency is on the other hand a trade and
cause of investment to the banks, thus due to corrupt measures the way forward
is also provided to the drug dealers by the bank officials to show their own
progress for seeking the awards and promotions etc. Thus by promulgation of new
laws to some extent means opening the new doors and trends of corruption unless
and until measures are not taken to stop such malpractice.
Most scholars, public officials, and members of the general public agree that
organizations providing contraband goods and services (i.e., organized crime
including drug trafficking organizations) cannot operate without corruption:
that the both corruption and organized crime are inherently linked, pointing to
a type of corrupt bargain.
Studies of early twentieth-century prohibition in the United States and the
operation of gambling and prostitution rings in major cities throughout the
country today, for instance, both highlight the role illegal payments to police
and local officials play not only in allowing these businesses to operate, but
also in maintaining their activities and in sequence within certain geographic
and political bounds.
Insecurity and violence that the country living through, is the result of
corruption that has become a cancer in the society and is increasing day night
without any intermission or hurdle. Evidence of a corrupt bargain wherein
corrupt state officials support and sustain drug trafficking in the state is
overwhelming. Headlines in different countries’ periodical feature the arrest or
detention of top officials within agencies spearheading the fight against drugs
and organized crime; Airport, port and prison officials; military and police
officials and politicians, members of legislation assemblies so on so forth all
for essentially aiding and abetting organized crime a but not all of these
factors indulged in promoting the corruption. Evidence also suggests that
corruption and collusion reach into the highest and lowest layers of the
government, constitutes the social base of organized crime.
Reports revealed that police and other enforcement agencies, Airline officials
and servants actually pick up methamphetamine, cocaine, opium, Heroin and Charas
shipments from/through the planes and delivered them. In this sense, corruption
facilitates the everyday operation of the illegal narcotics business throughout
country. One most important thing in Pakistan is the coastal area where the
smugglers use yachts and the boarder areas which are vulnerable. The local
experts are used to mediate with the officials and officers posted thereon. The
main reason is commonly considered by the experts as less vigilance less check
and balance over there. This pattern of corruption also includes the placement
of select personnel in key government posts or key positions. Beyond merely
neutralizing law enforcement, corruption is also used by criminal organizations
to employ state officials as allies in their thought against the state itself
and against rival organizations. By engaging in this type of corruption, state
officials move past simple noncompliance into a form of targeted compliance.
This is a dramatic shift in the pattern of corruption with public officials
proactively abusing state authority in pursuit of the objectives of the criminal
organizations.
As for as check and balance by anti-corruption and National Accountability like
agency is concerned, their jurisdiction is limited only to certain institutions
and excludes the others. It is usually observed that in counter narcotics, the
role of different institutions is seen, thus there are ample chances of
organized corruption in those agencies and institutions where check and balance
is ousted by certain agency, the same must not go unchecked and if a vigilant
eye is placed over such agencies and individuals the result would be far better
than bitter.
The export and import business, as a facilitator to the real smugglers dealing
in narcotics business and also facilitate the foreign nationals in doing such
business under the cover of some legitimate business, corruption is main cause
to dare such practice in Pakistan.
Growing number of cases where the police officials, airport security officers,
Civil Aviation officials, excise and taxation officers, officials and officers
of forces and other political persons, are involved with organizations that
traffic or profit from illegal substances is alarming situation in the country.
It is also seen that certain officials and officials have also been convicted by
the court law in drug charges. Thus, it is crucial to inquire into the exact
magnitude, methods and situations of the upper echelons of state power in these
criminal organizations, as well as their powerful presence through corruption in
distinct levels of government. As a result, it is necessary to analyze the
benefits offered by both sectors, drug traffickers and state institutions, which
facilitate acts of corruption when they interact.