14 June 2005
Sydney, 14 June 2005: This week's visit by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to Australia not only signals the first step towards a strengthening of ties between the two countries but also highlights Pakistan's commitment to improving its status in the global community, according to Clayton Utz consultant and former NSW Supreme Court Justice Mr Barry O'Keefe AM QC.
Mr O'Keefe, who was the only Australian in a small group invited by the Pakistan government earlier this year to conduct the country's first ever 'Ethics Retreat', said that while growing investor interest in Pakistan was one of the reasons the government was focused on improving perceptions of Pakistan, he had no doubt that the desire to be a respected member of the international community was a major factor.
"There is a significant advantage to be had in economic terms as well in establishing good governance and putting in place strategies to eliminate corruption," Mr O'Keefe said.
"There are also personal and psychological consequences for the people of Pakistan. President Musharraf has made it clear that for far too long the poor people who are the majority in Pakistan have borne the brunt of corruption amongst politicians and in the bureaucracy and their lot is worse because of that."
The Ethics Retreat, held in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad in February and which Mr O'Keefe described as "historic", aimed to provide a 'good governance' framework within which the Pakistan government can operate effectively to eliminate corruption and increase political and judicial accountability.
"It is the first time there has been such an activity and the first time that there has been a major initiative taken by the government to promote good governance and the eradication of corruption," Mr O'Keefe said.
President Musharraf, along with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Pakistan Cabinet ministers, took part in the one-day Retreat organised by the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's anti-corruption body.
"The ground rules were that everybody had to go and everybody did. It was held in the Prime Minister's house so all the Cabinet ministers, Ministers of State, Chief Ministers and Prime Minister were there, and stayed there from early morning until late in the evening," Mr O'Keefe said.
The head of NAB, General Munir Hafiez, invited Mr O'Keefe to take part in the Retreat having met him in 1998 during a visit to Australia to examine the workings of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (the equivalent of the NAB).
Mr O'Keefe, who was the ICAC Commissioner at the time, said the General was "very impressed by our anti-corruption prevention and educational strategies" and invited Mr O'Keefe last year to take part in organising and conducting the Retreat.
"The combination of what I learnt as the ICAC Commissioner and a background of judicial experience meant I was able to assist significantly in the organisation, the format and the content on the day," Mr O'Keefe said.
Mr O'Keefe took his place alongside five other delegates - two foreign and three local - in moderating a mixture of break out and plenary sessions. Among the topics canvassed were how to introduce accountable, political control of the bureaucracy with proper safeguards; amending the Rules of Business to empower Ministers to modernise government rules and regulations, and; judicial reform to improve the speed, predictability and fairness of the administration of the rules of law, improve the effective functioning of the Supreme Judicial Council and encourage professional training for judicial and legal staff.
"The first priority was to get the Ministers of State and Chief Ministers feeding in information on the impediments they perceived to reform. They said that there were two main impediments - the bureaucracy and the judiciary," Mr O'Keefe said. "The rules under which the bureaucrats conducted the business of government were in urgent need of reform," he added.
At a final plenary session, Mr O'Keefe assisted in the drafting of a statement setting out the government's commitment to pursuing the reform objectives.
"That document represents the views of the entire Cabinet," Mr O'Keefe said. "There is in my view undoubted genuine political will in the President and Prime Minister and in many Ministers to achieve these outcomes. The President is passionate about eliminating corruption. He wants to make a difference in Pakistan and is determined to go about doing so. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is of the same mind."
Mr O'Keefe said a significant proportion of Cabinet members were sufficiently impressed by the Retreat to request that the Prime Minister schedule further retreats on various topics touching on the country's governance, including politically delicate issues such as Kashmir. To this end, Mr O'Keefe said there was a benefit in having independent involvement.
"When you have outsiders involved it tends to help lower the level of emotion that can be introduced into these sorts of discussions and make them a little less florid and with more content," Mr O'Keefe said.
Mr O'Keefe said it was a great honour to be asked to be involved in the Retreat, which NAB head General Munir Hafiez described as an "outstanding success". "There was a sense of real achievement and special utility in what had been done," Mr O'Keefe said.
Mr O'Keefe, who in his role at Clayton Utz provides probity advice to government and private sector clients, said the initiative highlighted the increasingly broad scope of the concept of 'good governance'.
"Good governance is part and parcel of Australian corporate life - and it's becoming part of life for countries such as Pakistan as well."
