Hitting out at Transparency International Pakistan for its survey rating police in this country among the most corrupt institutions,Interior Minister Rehman Malik has accused the anti-graft watchdog of working against the nation's interests and threatened to "expose" it. "TIP (Transparency International Pakistan) is not a big gun; it is just a non-governmental organisation which works for its own vested interests," Malik said during question hour in National Assembly or lower house of Parliament yesterday. Malik claimed he would reveal the "real truth" behind organisations like TIP. He was responding to questions about TIP's national corruption perception survey that was released on Wednesday. TIP said in the report that Pakistan's education sector and the military were the least corrupt while land administration and police were the most corrupt. When a legislator drew his attention towards the TIP survey report,Malik said unlike the developed world where all departments were computerised,things were totally different in Pakistan. Malik said most of the work in the revenue department is still done manually. Therefore,there was no need to believe what TIP had said in its report about corruption in various government departments,he contended. "Some people and organisations don't want foreign investment coming to the country,and therefore,on and off they come up with such reports. When such organisations will say Pakistan is a corrupt country who will come here for investment?" he asked. In an attempt to substantiate his argument and respond to questions from lawmakers,Malik said,"If the house agrees,I should be given time some day to explain the real story behind the TIP." Malik did not rule out corruption in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) but said the government is making every possible effort to curb it. Over the past four years,the government terminated some 40 employees of FIA found guilty of serious dereliction of duty,he said. FIA had taken action against firms like Hanani and Kalia that were involved in illegal transactions,and remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis through legal means had reached over USD 11 billion,Malik said. Moreover,Pakistan was no longer on the watch list of countries with significant cases of human smuggling,he said. In reply to a question,Malik said there were "many loopholes" in the existing law of evidence that were exploited by terrorists to get themselves freed from courts. "I strongly request this house to adopt necessary amendments to make the law of evidence an effective tool in the hands of law enforcement agencies," he said.
