Pakistan retains 140th spot on Corruption Perception Index

Pakistan failed to improve its position in Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI 2022) and retained its 140th position out of the total 180 countries on the list for the second consecutive year.

TI ranks the countries and territories included in the survey on perceived levels of corruption in their public sector. It scores the nations on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) on the CPI.

According to the TI CPI issued on Tuesday, Pakistan, with a score of 27, ranks 140th out of 180 countries. In 2021, Pakistan slid 16 spots from 124 to 140 out of 180 countries.

Global failure

The TI report indicates a global failure in curbing public sector corruption. A statement from the corruption watchdog said: "More than two-thirds of countries score below 50, while 26 countries have fallen to their lowest scores yet." It added that "despite concerted efforts and hard-won gains" 155 countries have not been able to make any significant progress in the fight against corruption since 2012. However, the global average has remained unchanged for over a decade at just 43 out of 100.

According to the report, in the last 15 years, corruption has been one of the major causes of deteriorating global peace.

"Corruption undermines governments' ability to protect people and erodes public trust, provoking more and harder to control security threats."

Meanwhile, conflict opens doors for corruption and undermines governments' attempts to combat it.

The nations with high CPI threaten global security as "they have welcomed dirty money from abroad, allowing kleptocrats to increase their wealth, power and destructive geopolitical ambitions" for decades, the report stated.