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), an international non-governmental organisation based in Berlin.The Berlin-based non-profit releases the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) every year, ranking 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people.
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.
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 “If you take the data sources out, you will find outdated data has been used to calculate Pakistan’s rating,” he added.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.
According to the TI’s latest report, the following 13 data sources were used to construct the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020:
1. African Development Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment 2018
2. Bertelsmann Stiftung Sustainable Governance Indicators 2020
3. Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index 2020
4. Economist Intelligence Unit Country Risk Service 2020
5. Freedom House Nations in Transit 2020
6. Global Insight Country Risk Ratings 2019
7. IMD World Competitiveness Center World Competitiveness Yearbook- Executive Opinion Survey 2020
8. Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Asian Intelligence 2020
9. The PRS Group International Country Risk Guide 2020
10. World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment 2019
11. World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey 2019
12. World Justice Project Rule of Law Index Expert Survey 2020
13. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem v. 10) 2020
The TI report also gives details of these sources and when the data they cite was collected. All these sources are authenticated and having a reputation. The report punctures the PTI’s claim that the PPP and the PML-N were the most corrupt governments. It was the second consecutive year when Pakistan’s ranking on the global index slipped. At the end of the PML-N tenure, Pakistan’s global ranking was 117. If one goes by the ruling political parties, the corruption perception during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was worse than the levels seen during the last four years of the PML-N tenure. However, PTI’s second-year ranking was three notches better than the ranking at the end of the Pakistan Peoples Party government.
PTI Government is doing nothing to improve governance and economy, the party feels that it is enough to bash opposition from morning to evening. Since last two and a half year, Government seems nothing but to continue a tantrum of opposition’s corruption. They nee to realize that people are fed up with this rhetoric and they want serious action.
Shafaqna Pakistan
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