| Transparency International’s report reveals Pakistan’s global
rank falls to 140 from 124 out of 180 countries | Countries that violate human rights, law and civil liberties consistently score lower on CPI, notes TI | Twitter users remind PM Khan how he used to show TI reports to mock PPP, PML-N govts
In 2020, Pakistan
was ranked 124 out of 180 countries
Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Mauritania, Myanmar
ranked 140
Denmark, Finland, New Zealand clean, South Sudan most corrupt country
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has further slipped by 16 places on Corruption Perception Index (CPI) compared to 2020, says a report of global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
According to the TI report, Pakistan’s global rank has fallen 16 places to 140 from 124 out of 180 countries.
The TI report said the CPI index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
Transparency International Pakistan Vice-Chair Justice (retired) Nasira Iqbal said in her comments carried in the report “The absence of rule of law and state capture has resulted in substantial low CPI 2021 score of Pakistan compared to CPI 2020, from 31/100 to 28/100 and rank from 124/180 to 140/180, whereas there is no change in CPI 2021 scores of India and Bangladesh from CPI 2020.”
Chair of Transparency International Delia Ferreira Rubio, said: “Human rights are not simply a nice-to-have in the fight against corruption. Ensuring people can speak freely and work collectively to hold power to account is the only sustainable route to a corruption-free society.” Under the PTI government, the ranking of Pakistan has gradually gone down.
According to TI previous reports of 2019, Pakistan was at 120 out of 180 countries, and in 2020, it was 124 and in 2021 it further worsened to 140. In 2018, during the PML-N government, the ranking of Pakistan was 117 out of 180 countries, which was much better than present ranking.
In its report, TI noted countries that violate human rights, law and civil liberties consistently score lower on the CPI.
The report says complacency in fighting corruption exacerbates human rights abuses and undermines democracy, setting off a vicious spiral.
It says as these rights and freedoms erode and democracy declines, authoritarianism takes its place, contributing to even higher levels of corruption.
TI also listed top countries globally with an excellent record of corruption free practices termed as top performing countries. These countries in Europe were Denmark, Finland and New Zealand (in Asia pacific) all having a corruption perception score of 88 points followed by Norway (Europe), Singapore (Asia) and Sweden (Europe), all of them scored 85 points.
The TI said the worst-performing countries were South Sudan with a corruption perception score of 11, followed by Syria (13), Somalia (13, Venezuela (14) and Afghanistan (16). The latest report of transparency was discussed in the federal cabinet meeting. The cabinet was informed that the indicators of TI about Pakistan are not based on financial corruption rather on the basis of political corruption and violations of the rule of law.
According to the sources, the Prime Minister said the Criminal Justice System reforms approved by the cabinet would lead to the rule of law in the country.
Meanwhile, Many Pakistanis slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for “maintaining its downward trajectory” on the index and called him “Corruption King Imran Khan”, while others trend #CorruPTIon on Twitter.
Users also shared videos of Khan quoting this very index to criticise the PML(N) government and “promote his anti-corruption mantra”.
While one user shared Imran Khan’s clip with the caption, “2021 Corruption Perception Index. Pakistan rank 140/180 #SaafChaliShafafChaliTahreekeInsaafChali”, another said, “Imran Khan used to show Transparency International reports to mock PPP and PML-N to promote his anti corruption mantra. Now under his watch Pakistan has climbed up corruption index 16 ladders and reached 140 index.”
Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Mauritania, and Myanmar stand on 140 position. Denmark, Finland, New Zealand were among the most clean countries while Syria, Somalia, and South Sudan are among the most corrupt nations.