The nation takes its place in the world with good performance coupled with high integrity. As of now, the Chinese say that big walls are not protectors; instead, the national character with loyalty to the nation is the real national protector in all odd situations including in blocking the criminal activities through rule of law. Integrity and a strong character become the automatic protector of the rule of law and once rule of law is in place, then no one can stop a nation to the height of achievements in all walks of life. Corruption is automatically eradicated with strong integrity of every citizen. Those in charge of accountability boys even fail in Pakistan to control corruption. Justice has to be certain with honest dealing and in China, the bullet used in executing the death penalty is to be paid by the family of the convict whereas this needs to control the natural force of character.

We have been building tall walls of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and PPO etc against the corruption and malpractices but we have so far failed and these high walls of accountability could not stand in front of mighty corruption and other crimes. Why? A question and response is built in the true story of the Chinese system evolved through centuries with a great lesson to the world. Let us recall the history of China with its ancient history and the Chinese decided to live in peace and free of alien attacks, hence they made the Great Wall of China with a lot of resources with the view that this wall will protect them and they thought no one could climb it due to its height and it will provide the security to people of China.

The Chinese were invaded thrice in the first 100 years, even with the presence of this wall and every time, despite the high wall it became a big national issue and concern as to how the enemy managed to climb up so high to attack. The enemy infantry did not require penetration or climbing up over the wall, because they found an easy way every time and bribed the guards on duty and the doors were all opened for the enemy and these guards sold their country and national character for a few pennies. The dignity of their nation was sold to the enemy enabling them to invade their country via easy access to the main locked gates. The Chinese thought to make a high wall to protect themselves but they forgot the guards/soldiers standing at vital points who were more important than the high wall and the Chinese had actually forgotten the character-building of the guards. There is no doubt that the great wall has become a powerful symbol of the country’s enduring strength and spirit, but it has been a good reminder to the Chinese of the superiority of human character than the walls and it is a lesson for the whole world, not only in the field of defence but in security, economy and law enforcement. This is what the Chinese learned later; that a solid character is more important than the strongest wall to protect them from internal and external intruders. The wisdom that the Chinese realised much later is that the best defence against the enemy is not a fortified wall, but a solid national character. Thus, the building of human character comes before the building of anything else. Pakistan has built high walls of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against corruption but it did not work as this is not the NAB wall or long stick but we need to devise laws and SOPs for national character building which should be embedded with hate against corruption and other crimes. The fear of law must be there as we are losing our national strength because of noncompliance with the law.

William Shakespeare stated “The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves” and it is very true even now. We need to inculcate crime free-thinking in ourselves and respect the law; always change yourself and your nation will change itself automatically. Wetland leads you to water and national character leads the nation to success. We need to build strong laws to protect our people and lead them the way to success. We need a stronger social justice system and it is unfortunate to quote the following and it should be alarming for the parliament and higher judiciary and the Ministry of Law and Justice that our justice system stands at 120th position in the WJP of Law Index 2020 out of 128 countries; we even stand lower than Congo. It is not the fault of the judiciary but it is the fault of our social justice system and the whole society, the government and all of us including the parliamentarians are responsible for this International Index. It looks like our present justice system has failed to provide justice. I myself became a victim once as DG FIA and law enforcer and then as a politician and the intelligence agencies were responsible for it and I will raise it in the parliament too. Even most recently, I experienced unimaginable pressure on our judicial system and it is overworked. I experienced a few odd disappointing judicial encounters faced being a senior law enforcer, a former Interior Minister and thrice-elected Senator. I plan to bring to the Supreme Judicial Council with evidence for the purpose to bring good change and some amendments in our social justice system. I will also have an open debate on our social justice system. I will brief the House as to what I observe, hiding my identity with a cap and COVID mask to observe the influence of the ‘powerful of the powerfuls’ playing with our criminal social justice system. How we need to reform our social justice system, the functioning of police and prosecution without extra wheels to run it. I remember Mr. Saleem Safi’s interview with a business tycoon who told him outspokenly as to how he ties extra wheels with files to get his any job done in the present system.

My disclosures will surprise many about my latest encounters in the high corridors of power in our mighty custodian of the “criminal social justice system” which is not free of pressures and extra wheels. I now tend to believe in another way that “justice is blind”. I think the International Law Society needs to change this worldwide idiom “Justice is never Blind” whereas according to Ibne Khaldoon, nations are built with the yardstick of triangular accountability of three arms of the state i.e political, judicial and bureaucracy. Will we ever be able to do that and stop one phone call that snatches away the rights from the deserving and oppressed ones.

Author Note: Opinions expressed are solely my own and not necessarily to reflect the views or opinions of my party.

Senator Rehman Malik
The writer is former Interior Minister of Pakistan, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Chairman of Think Tank “Global Eye”. He is the author of four books and his fifth book is about to get published. He can be reached at: rmalik1212@gmail.com, Twitter 
@Senrehmanmalik