Pakistan slides 16 spots on corruption perceptions index, now ranks 140 out of 180

countries: report
Dawn.com | Amin AhmedPublished January 25, 2022

   

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Pakistan's Corruption Perception Index rankings over the years. — Graph via Transparency International
Picture courtesy Transparency International

Pakistan's Corruption Perception Index rankings over the years. — Graph via Transparency International
Picture courtesy Transparency International

Pakistan's Corruption Perception Index rankings over the years. — Graph via Transparency International

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Pakistan dropped 16 places in the Corruption Perceptions

Index (CPI) for 2021 compared to the previous year, ranking 140
out of 180 countries, Transparency International said in a report
on Tuesday.

The CPI, which measures how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to
be by its experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100 where zero is
highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

The 2021 edition of the CPI ranked 180 countries and territories by their
perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments
and surveys of business executives.

In 2020, Pakistan's CPI was 31 and it was ranked 124 out of 180 countries.
According to Transparency International, the country's corruption score has
now deteriorated to 28 while it is ranked 140 out of the total countries on the
index.

In contrast, India's corruption score stood at 40 while Bangladesh's CPI was

26. The two countries ranked 85 and 147, respectively.

While the corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 per cent
of the countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years, Transparency
International in its Index revealed that the absence of "rule of law" and "state
capture" has resulted in substantial low CPI score of Pakistan.

Vice Chair of Transparency International Pakistan, Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal,

while commenting on the report said that there was no change in CPI 2021
scores of India and Bangladesh from last year.

Under the PTI government, the ranking of Pakistan has gradually slid. In
2019, it was 120 out of 180 countries, in 2020, it was 124 and in 2021 it
worsened further to 140. In 2018, during the PML-N government, the ranking
was 117 out of 180 countries.

In its report, Transparency International found countries that violate civil

liberties consistently score lower on the CPI. Complacency in fighting
corruption exacerbates human rights abuses and undermines democracy,
setting off a vicious spiral. As these rights and freedoms erode and democracy
declines, authoritarianism takes its place, contributing to even higher levels of
corruption.

According to Transparency International, the top-performing countries were

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand — all having a corruption perceptions
score of 88 — followed by Norway, Singapore and Sweden, all of them scoring
85.

In contrast, the worst-performing countries were South Sudan with a

corruption perceptions score of 11, followed by Syria (13), Somalia (13,
Venezuela (14) and Afghanistan (16).
Regional situation

In its report, Transparency International noted a trend in countries with weak

scores — China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan — of "weakening
of anti-corruption institutions or in some cases absence of an agency to
coordinate action against corruption".

The report termed the situation in India "particularly worrying", saying there
were concerns about its democratic status as fundamental freedoms and
institutional checks and balances decay. Journalists and activists in the
country are especially at risk, it noted, adding that they had been victims of
attacks by the police, political militants, criminal gangs and corrupt local
officials.

"Civil society organisations that speak up against the government have been
targeted with security, defamation, sedition, hate speech and contempt-of-
court charges, and with regulations on foreign funding," the report said.

It further said that countries like Singapore, Bangladesh and Pakistan had
increased digital surveillance to silence those trying to hold governments
accountable during the pandemic.

Commenting on the findings, chair of Transparency International, Delia

Ferreira Rubio, said: "Human rights are not simply a nice-to-have in the fight
against corruption. Authoritarian approaches destroy independent checks and
balances and make anti-corruption efforts dependent on the whims of an elite.

"Ensuring people can speak freely and work collectively to hold power to
account is the only sustainable route to a corruption-free society."

'Charge sheet against govt'

Meanwhile, reacting to the report, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said

corruption had "decreased" during the PML-N's government as a result of
"transparency, good governance and legal reforms".

However, "now corruption has hit an all-time high despite the fact that no
worthwhile development has taken place," he tweeted.

PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman termed the report a "charge sheet against
the [PTI] government", saying the rankings had "exposed the government's
narrative".
The government that claimed to end corruption has moved above 16 countries
in graft, she said in a separate tweet. Rehman noted that the prime minister's
adviser on accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar had resigned recently, saying
it was "proof" that corruption had increased instead of decreasing.

Accountability is only for targeting opponents. International institutions are

now uncovering the corruption of this government, she added.