Pakistan's rank remains same in corruption perception index

Pakistan's score has worsened slightly in the Transparency International's (TI) latest Corruption Perception Index, and it was ranked 140th among 180 countries, the same position as last year, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The South Asian country's score has lowered to 27/100 in 2022 from 28/100 in 2021, a decrease of one point and its lowest score since 2012.

"Pakistan has continued its statistically significant downward trend, this year hitting its lowest score since 2012 at just 27 points amidst ongoing political turmoil," said the report.

It said that PTI chairman Imran Khan came to power promising to tackle corruption and promote social and economic reforms, but little has been accomplished on any of these fronts since he took the reins in 2018. "It's time for concrete action with a holistic and effective anticorruption plan that addresses illicit financial flows and introduces safeguards for civic space," it said.

The index by TI, a civil society organisation working to end corruption, showed that 124 countries have stagnant corruption levels, while the number of countries in decline is increasing.

"This has the most serious consequences, as global peace is deteriorating and corruption is both a key cause and result of this," said the report. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople. It relies on 13 independent data sources and uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Countries with strong institutions and well-functioning democracies often find themselves at the top of the Index, the report said.