Corruption index

When it comes to corruption, Pakistan is actually moving backwards. According to Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report, released yesterday, the country is now ranked 135th out of 180 countries, two spots lower than in the previous year, based on the perceived levels of corruption in the public sector. The CPI assesses the perceived levels of corruption in the public sector, using a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) and ranks countries accordingly. Pakistan attained a score of 27 on the 2024 CPI, indicating high perceptions of public sector corruption, and also two points lower than the score of 29 it attained in the 2023 edition of the CPI. Transparency International Pakistan says the score of all countries in the region except Oman, China, Turkey and Mongolia has gone down on the CPI 2024. TIP also says that global corruption levels remain alarmingly high, with efforts to reduce them faltering. The 2024 CPI report has exposed serious corruption levels across the globe, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50 out of 100. These countries account for an estimated 85 per cent of the global population, meaning the vast majority of the world is living in countries with serious systemic corruption problems.

Viewed from this angle, Pakistan’s backslide in the corruption rankings and generally high levels of perceived public-sector corruption appear to be in line with regional and global trends, respectively. However, this is no cause for comfort. As it stands, Pakistan still ranks above most of the world in terms of corruption. The global average of the 2024 CPI is 43 out of 100, far above the 27 Pakistan managed to maintain. Such high levels of public corruption are a serious impediment to effective governance and risk thwarting the country’s economic, security and environmental goals. The latter has come under particular focus from Transparency International, with the most corrupt countries on the CPI tending to also be the ones most vulnerable to climate change. This is a category that squarely fits Pakistan. Recent TI research reportedly shows how corruption can undermine a just transition to net-zero carbon emissions, putting billions of people at risk by undermining climate projects meant to help them.

Aside from climate change, there is also the threat that corruption poses to the country’s economic stability that must be considered. Already a three-member IMF scoping mission is visiting Pakistan to undertake a Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA) and its findings might become part of the conditionalities of the Fund-sponsored $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan. The focus of the mission will reportedly be to examine the severity of corruption vulnerabilities across six core state functions. As such, Pakistan’s backslide on the 2024 CPI could not have come at a more inopportune moment. Tackling corruption has thus never been more imperative for the well-being of the country. Not only does it divert resources away from the people and important state functions, it now threatens to undermine Pakistan’s whole economic recovery. Excising this cancer will require greater formalisation of the economy and also more transparency in the collection and usage of state revenues. An inability to do so will put Pakistan on a straight path to climate or economic disaster or, in the worst case, both.