"We must not sit idle, rather work to promote public awareness, so that the corrupt people do not get any chance to hold any public office or responsible position anywhere," he noted.

The state policy makers should take a 'three-pronged approach of enforcement, prevention and awareness to combat corruption', the chief justice suggested while speaking as chief guest at a seminar on 'Corruption: Awareness of Citizens 'in the capital yesterday.

"At this moment it would be an elusive goal for the nation to eradicate corruption as a whole because the scale of corruption is so enormous that many stalwarts of the society have close involvement in this unholy process," he said.

Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, in his keynote speech at the seminar, said, "Political or grand corruption takes place at the highest levels of political authority."

The ACC chairman said, "It is when the politicians and political decision-makers, who are entitled to formulate, establish and implement the laws in the name of the people, are themselves corrupt, they use the political power they are armed with to sustain their power, status and wealth."

The Monthly Legal Aid organised the seminar held at Cirdap auditorium.

The chief justice said since corruption is now an issue of national concern, political will should be involved to make the anti-corruption bodies including the newly established (ACC) effective and operationally independent.

The government has set up the ACC, but unfortunately it is yet to implement a strategy of its functioning of investigating and combating corruption, he added.

Justice Mudassir said corruption will continue unabated and ultimately affect all the pillars of the national integrity system unless the causes of corruption are addressed, unless the society is empowered to stand up for its rights and unless political will is created to take unpalatable decisions to prevent corruption.

"Corruption is one of the greatest challenges facing us today. Our all efforts will go in vain if we fail to promote good governance through legal and administrative reforms for better transparency and accountability of public administration and judicial system."

Justice Mudassir went on, "We must have political commitment at the highest level to strengthen the rule of law by ensuring independence of investigating and judicial institutions."

He noted that corruption is highly detrimental to the stability of all democratic institutions, erodes the rule of law, and undermines the trust and confidence of citizens in fairness and impartiality of public administration.

The ACC chairman mentioned the commitments of the two major political parties-- BNP and Awami League-- to the voters before the election of eighth parliament. "They told in their manifestos that if elected they would constitute a constitutional and independent anti-corruption commission to curb corruption," Sultan recalled.

Political will is very essential for the success of anti-corruption strategies, he said, adding that political corruption can also be contained by improving the quality of political participation.

"The quality of political participation is detrimental to corruption where competition for electoral support is based neither on broad policy appeals nor on charisma, but it takes place mainly as a competition to offer short-term, highly specific inducements to localised groups of voters and in the extreme cases, purchase of votes for money."

He said, "We have seen in recent times in some advanced countries they have taken steps to curb individual rights to protect national interests. Time is running out, we must act and act for the good of the people."

Justice Md Ruhul Amin of the Supreme Court chaired the working session of the seminar.

Speaking at the seminar as a designated discussant, Justice Tafazzul Islam of the SC termed corruption and poor governance main obstacles to economic development of the country.

Since the two major political parties -- BNP and AL-- pledged in their election manifestos before the last general election that they would fight corruption, it is high time to do that and people are waiting to see what they do.

Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, another discussant, said only 20 percent people of Bangladesh are enjoying privilege at the cost of 80 percent people.

"Corruption is now at every level and we are very much worried about it," he said. Fighting corruption should start from top, not from bottom, he added.

Hua Du, country director of Asian Development Bank, said there are growing concerns that Bangladesh's development prospects are undermined by governance weaknesses.

Amongst the governance constraints, pervasive corruption seriously affects economic growth and poverty reduction in the country, she said.

Barrister Mainul Hosein said, "If ACC cannot function, they must admit that they cannot function."

Others who spoke included Prof Muzaffer Ahmad, trustee member of Transparency International of Bangladesh, Nancy Langston, resident legal advisor of US Embassy in Dhaka and Khawja Golam Murshed, editor of the Monthly Legal Aid.