TRY as it may, it is difficult for the PTI government to spin the numbers in

Transparency International’s latest report any way other than what they suggest.
Pakistan has plunged 16 places on TI’s corruption perceptions index in the span of
only one year and, with a score of 28 — down from 31 in 2020 — now ranks at 140 out
of 180 countries.

The report punches a hole in the self-righteous façade of a party that has long
beaten the drum of accountability, whose leader — the country’s chief executive —
will not deign to meet senior opposition leaders on the pretext of their alleged
corruption. Past governments have often expressed reservations about the
reliability of TI’s findings and the conclusions that can be drawn from them.
However, while in opposition, Imran Khan would present the CPI as a gold standard
and use it as a stick with which to beat the party in power. Now that Pakistan has
scored the worst on the index since 2013, for the PTI government to find fault with
the methodology is challenging, to say the least.

Nevertheless, its spin doctors are pushing back in the face of uproar from the
opposition parties. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry ascribed the drop in
Pakistan’s CPI ranking to weak rule of law and ‘state’ capture rather than
financial wrongdoing. It is a thin, illogical argument that does not in any way
exonerate the PTI government. Rule of law is the foundation upon which rests the
edifice of accountability; it is a situation in which the law is applied across the
board, without fear or favour.

However, NAB, the premier anti-graft body, has by now been thoroughly discredited,
with several judgements of the apex court questioning its workings and decrying the
blatant political witch-hunt in which it has been engaged. The amendments that the
government has enacted in the NAB law have made accountability an even more
partisan exercise. In other words, it has made a deliberate choice to weaken the
mechanism of anti-corruption. State capture too cannot be delinked from financial
corruption: policy manipulation by the ruling elites to further their own interests
is precisely what enables such malfeasance.

That said, it is unfortunate the CPI ranking has in the last couple of decades been
used by all sides for point-scoring. Corruption remains a major issue in Pakistan,
as in many other developing countries, something the TI’s latest report itself
illustrates. By exacerbating inequity and concentrating resources within a sliver
of society, corruption prevents a country from developing to its full potential.

The fraying of the PTI government’s narrative about accountability has been obvious
for some time. No amount of sophistry can stitch it back together again. The only
way forward is for the country’s representatives to work collectively and with
consensus in order to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan.