Pakistan slips three spots on Corruption Perceptions Index

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 120 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019, slipping by three spots from the previous year’s ranking, according to a report released by the Transparency International (TI) on Thursday.

CPI uses a scale of 0 to 100 to rank nations, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. Pakistan’s score — 32/100 — is one below its score last year and well below the CPI average of 43 for the year 2019.

According to the TI, an international non-governmental organisation based in Berlin, the CPI 2019 shows that corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals.

“Governments must urgently address the corrupting role of big money in political party financing and the undue influence it exerts on our political systems,” says TI chief Delia Ferreira Rubio.

TI Managing Director Patricia Moreira also echoed the same comments. “To have any chance of ending corruption and improving peoples’ lives, we must tackle the relationship between politics and big money. All citizens must be represented in decision-making,” she said.

Pakistan was ranked 120 on the CPI this year, jointly with African nation Niger, but above regional partners like Afghanistan (173), Iran (146) and Bangladesh (146). Neighbour and arch-rival India was ranked at the 80th place, scoring 41/100 on the CPI, according to the TI.

The top countries on the index were New Zealand and Denmark, with scores of 87 each, followed by Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85). The bottom countries were Somalia, South Sudan and Syria, with scores of 9, 12 and 13, respectively.

In the index, Pakistan was placed in the Asia-Pacific region, which had an average CPI score of 45 after many consecutive years of an average score of 44, illustrating general stagnation across the region. The region is home to both top-performing and bottom-listed countries on the CPI.

The TI said that by managing conflicts of interest, controlling political financing, strengthening electoral integrity, regulating lobbying activities, tackling preferential treatment, empowering citizens, and reinforcing checks and balances, states could fight corruption and defeat it.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan, when asked to comment on the TI report, said no big scandal of corruption had come forward against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government.

“Fifteen months are not enough to wipe out corruption from the country. The government will defeat corruption-laden system and the people who take advantage of this corruption,” she told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. “The biggest challenge of Pakistan is corruption. Our fight is with the corrupt mafia that releases a new rumour regarding the government everyday,” she added.

Commenting on the report, TI Chairman (Pakistan) Sohail Muzaffar said the accountability body tasked with fighting corruption in Pakistan — the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) — had performed much better this year.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s Senator Sherry Rehman said her party was already of the opinion that corruption in Pakistan had actually increased under the PTI government and the TI report was evidence of it. “The TI report is a charge-sheet against the government. The international body has exposed the accountability-driven rulers. The premier accuses the opposition of fostering corruption, but Pakistan has slipped to 120 in the CPI under his watch,” she said.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Marriyum Aurangzeb said the research on governance and transparency issues was a slap in the face of the PTI government.

“The country cannot be run on false claims but good governance. The government has only created unjust hue and cry over the past year with nothing to show for it,” she told Geo News.

Pakistan scored 33/100 on the CPI in 2018 and 32/100 in 2017. Although Pakistan’s score on the index has not changed much compared to the past year, changes in the scores of other countries on the list can be one reason why Pakistan slipped in the ranking.