When Pakistan was established in 1947, one of the country’s earliest legislative measures was a robust law to curb corruption in public offices: the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947. Later amended in 1960, Sections 5B and 5C were added to empower the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to investigate not just public servants’ income and assets, but also the financial conditions of their relatives.
The law stipulates harsh penalties: up to seven years’ imprisonment, heavy fines, and confiscation of assets if an official is found concealing wealth or providing false information. However, 78 years on, this powerful provision remains untouched — not a single officer or clerk has been prosecuted under these clauses.
Meanwhile, corruption has taken deep root across more than 22 departments and authorities in Punjab. So unchecked is the accumulation of wealth that the third generation of many public servants now lives in luxury — far beyond the scope of their official incomes. The silence of the Anti-Corruption Establishment amid such glaring disparities raises troubling questions.
The Web of Corruption Across Departments
* Revenue Department officials, including patwaris, tehsildars, and registry staff, are widely alleged to be involved in illegal land transfers and fraudulent property documentation.
* Local Government (TMAs and Municipal Corporations) have turned urban mapping, tenders, and sanitation funds into major sources of unaccounted income.
* Lahore Development Authority (LDA) officials are reportedly earning millions through plot allotments, commercialisation approvals, and map clearances.
* In the Health Department, misappropriation of medicines and hospital procurement funds is common practice, involving even medical superintendents and storekeepers.
* The Education Department faces ongoing scandals in fake recruitments, ghost schools, and misuse of development funds.
* In Agriculture, subsidies, fertiliser distribution, and use of state machinery often benefit private interests.
* Public Health Engineering schemes for water and sewerage often exist only on paper — on ground, many remain incomplete.
* C&W Department projects, especially roads, allegedly prioritise commission over construction.
* Irrigation funds meant for canal cleaning and pumping stations are often misused, becoming a routine corruption model.
* The Forest Department saw trees vanish while records remained intact — the only growth being in officers’ private real estate holdings.
* Auqaf and Religious Affairs remains under scrutiny for mismanagement of shrine revenues and waqf properties.
* Cooperative Department suffers from irregularities in society registration, audits, and cooperative loans.
* Social Welfare officials have faced accusations of siphoning off funds meant for orphans, widows, and the needy.
* The Zakat & Ushr Department has long faced criticism for denying rightful beneficiaries their due share.
* Industries Department reportedly allocates industrial plots and SME funds selectively to powerful interest groups.
* Punjab Police continues to be plagued by allegations of bribery in FIRs, investigations, postings, and bail procedures.
* Punjab Food Authority enforces its rules strictly on small businesses while reportedly offering leniency to major brands in return for hefty ‘fees’.
* The Environment Department allegedly issues No Objection Certificates (NOCs) and fines factories through pre-set financial arrangements.
* In Housing & Urban Development, land grabbing and political influence dominate allotments and project approvals.
* Tourism and Sports Departments show more paperwork than actual progress, while funding usage remains questionable.
* District Administration’s regulation, asset, planning, and infrastructure branches have also been implicated in various forms of malpractice.
Despite this widespread misconduct, not once has the Anti-Corruption Establishment invoked Sections 5B or 5C to demand asset disclosures from these officials. The claim that “a system of checks and balances exists” has become a ceremonial phrase with little real-world backing.
Had the law been enforced, thousands of bungalows, plazas, luxury vehicles, and overseas trips would have been subject to serious scrutiny. Instead, accountability has become a rhetorical device, used in press releases and public statements — but never in practice.
Eroding Public Trust
The continued inaction has eroded the credibility of the very institution created to ensure accountability. Citizens now view the Anti-Corruption Establishment as symbolic at best, a dormant body that exists only in bureaucratic files.
Since its inception, the department has failed to launch any systematic campaign to collect asset declarations from government employees. Nor has it taken legal action under the very clauses that empower it.
This inaction serves only the powerful — and endangers public faith in justice. If laws are made but not enforced, institutions become hollow symbols, and governance loses its moral authority.
History will not ask whether laws existed. It will ask why they were not applied — and who benefited from their silence.
