MM News

Corruption in Pakistan is perceived to have increased compared to last year as the country now ranks 124 out of 180 countries, four places down from 2019’s ranking, on a global corruption perceptions list prepared by Transparency International (TI).

Corruption is one of the most chronic issues all over the world especially in third world countries like Pakistan where it has routed down in government institutions enough that cannot be eliminated easily.

Corruption has spoiled Pakistan completely and is resulting in an increase in poverty, unemployment, hunger and is tarnished the image of the country by bringing immense miseries to its people. Let’s have a look at the PTI-led government claims to eradicate corruption from Pakistan.

The report

Pakistan ranked 124 out of 180 countries — dropping four spots over last year — in Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International. Pakistan’s score in CPI 2020 has lowered to 31/100 from 32/100 in 2019 and rank to 124/180 from 120/180 in 2019.

This is despite efforts of NAB which claims to have recovered Rs363 billion in the last two years and the Public Accounts Committee claiming recoveries of Rs300 billion in over two years.

In this regard, TI Pakistan Chairperson Sohail Muzaffar, said that Pakistan has scored less than last year on two counts: the rule of law index and varieties of democracy.

The questions asked by the rule of law index and varieties of democracy, he said, are about the corruption of government officials through legislatures (parliament), executives (bureaucracy), judiciary, police and military.

PTI’s stance

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill claimed that Transparency International used old data. “If you take the data sources out, you will find outdated data has been used to calculate Pakistan’s rating,” he added.

He gave an example of World Bank data cited in by TI which has been published in 2017. He said this means the data for a 2017 publication must have been collected before 2017. He showed another data source from 2018.

He said that this corruption perception report, thus, is from the last tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz government.

PTI’s manifesto

According to the manifesto of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), the party will end this corrupt and decaying system.” The word ‘corrupt’ or ‘corruption’ appeared 12 times in the manifesto.

Imran Khan, in his address, had said that the PTI would ensure country was purged of corruption. The PTI chairman asked the crowd if they had ever heard of any party expelling its parliamentarians over corruption. “But I expelled 20 MPAs of my party over corruption,” he added. “They swore on holy book (about their innocence), but you come to me and I will show you the evidence.”

What to do?

Corruption has been deep rooted in all levels either private or government from top to bottom and anti-corruption institutions have unfavourably failed to address this or even reduce the ongoing dishonesty and frauds.

Pakistan is a state with weak institutions, where political instability is the rule and bureaucratic and political corruption is pervasive. This leaves businesses and entrepreneurs with no option but to resort to unlawful practices in order to push things along.

Corruption, therefore, ends up being the grease that makes the wheels of the economy turn; without it, there is a potential risk that the machine may come to a halt.

However, that those not mean that corruption should be tolerated or that governments should abandon the pursuit of reforms against it. Policy measures that seek to improve economic performance and reduce corruption must be informed by research that highlights why corruption is pervasive, what its transmission mechanisms are and the type of systemic reforms.

These reforms must focus on strengthening institutions that create checks and balances, promote democratic accountability and enable a free press.