By By Mansoor Ahmad
Pakistan has got poor ranking in the Economic Freedom Index of Heritage Foundation, Global Competitiveness Report of World Economic Forum, Gender Gap Report of WEF, Failed State Index of Foreign Policy Magazine and Human Development Index of the United Nations.
Another point worth noting is that as far as the Corruption Perception Index is concerned, Pakistan’s rank among corrupt nations is irrelevant. The most important thing in this regard is its transparency score. Transparency of a country is evaluated on a scale of 0 to 10. Higher the transparency score lesser is the corruption.
Pakistan’s transparency score in 1995 was 2.25 which meant perceived 77.75 per cent corruption. In the same year, the transparency score of China was 2.16 which was lower than Pakistan’s. India’s score was 2.78 points in the same year.
In 1996, during the tenure of second PPP government, Pakistan’s transparency score dropped to one point. That year, the country was declared the second most corrupt country in the world after Nigeria. In other words, perceived corruption was 99 per cent.
In 1998, Pakistan got the highest transparency score of 2.70. That was the lowest corruption level the country has achieved until now. However, even at its best, corruption was still very high at 73 per cent. This level was achieved during the tenure of last PML-N government. However, this progress was reversed the next year during the tenure of the same party as the transparency score dropped to 2.20 in 1999.
During the tenure of General Musharraf, the best transparency score that the country could get was in 2008 which was 2.5. In 2009, the transparency score has dropped to 2.4. The rulers instead of questioning authenticity of the corruption perception index should tackle the problem.
It is indeed interesting that on the one hand the government is disputing the findings of Transparency International while on the other hand its finance minister and deputy auditor general have stated that Pakistan loses Rs400-500 billion in annual revenues because of corruption.
Transparency International has simply seconded this opinion as it also states that corruption eats away Rs500 billion per year in Pakistan.
When Pakistan’s efforts towards eradicating corruption are assessed in comparison to its neighbours, it comes to light that all other countries have made tremendous progress in this regard.
China, which had a transparency score lower than Pakistan in 1995, now has increased its score to 3.6. India has improved its ranking and transparency score from 2.78 in 1995 to 3.4 in 2009. Bangladesh was included in the CPI index at the start of this century with a low score of one and this year it is on a par with Pakistan at 2.4 points.
Sri Lanka, which has been devastated by a decade-long civil war and acts of terrorism, has a transparency score of 3.2 in 2009. Nigeria, which for years remained the most corrupt country in the world, has also higher transparency score of 2.5 points.