The Shah’s Fight Against Corruption
In the Shah’s absence in Europe, his Prime Minister Manouchehr Eghbal last week rammed through the docile Majlis the Shah’s anticorruption bill, which requires all government officials, civil or military, to file an inventory of their properties, as well as those of their wives and children. An earlier bill forbade ministers, government officials, Deputies, Senators, or members of the royal family from dealing in any way with companies having or seeking contracts from the government.
A skeptical public waits to see whether anything will happen. The Shah is considered personally honest. The Queen Mother, Tajul-Moluk, and the Shah’s twin sister, sinuous Princess Ashraf, are acknowledged to have great commercial acumen. When, last month, Princess Ashraf was caught by French customs officials as she left France with 800,000 francs in her handbag after declaring only 10,000, many wondered how this could happen to so wealthy a woman. Cracked an old Capital hand: “Probably habit.”