Transparency International Pakistan issues important clarification

The Transparency International Pakistan (TI) issued a clarification on Sunday, stating that its recently-released report did not state that corruption had either increased or decreased in Pakistan. The NGO blamed certain sections of the media and politicians for misquoting facts "to damage the reputation of Pakistan". 

The press release quoted TI Pakistan Chairman Sohail Muzaffar saying that "lowering of Pakistan Score by one does not reflect any increase or decrease in Corruption as it is within the standard margin of error which is 2.46%". 

It cited the example of Denmark, which had also experienced a drop from 87 to 88 score yet it was the least corrupt country in 2018 and 2019. He said that the Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index 2020 which is provided only to the TI to form its Corruption Perceptions Index report has not been made public rather media used data from CPI 2018. 

It rejected accusations from a leader that the TI declared Musharraf's government as the most corrupt followed by the PTI government as the second corrupt and the PML-N one being the cleanest. 

"Reality is that CPI 2019 has not given any such rating for Pakistan, nor for any other country. TI does not have its own data input in CPI, and TI Pakistan has not role in making of CPI, nor has any data input in it," read the press release. 

Muzaffar appreciated the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) performance and approved of the anti-corruption steps taken by the incumbent government. The TI chairman clarified that the data in the NGO's report is obtained by at least 13 different sources and not its own.

SAPM Awan criticises Transparency International

In its recently published report, TI stated that Pakistan had scored 32 on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2019. According to the data, Pakistan not only fell one point below the 2018 score of 33 but also dropped three stages in the world ranking from the previous 117th to the latest 120th among 180 countries. 

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Technology Firdous Ashiq Awan said the report was "not free and fair", alleging that there had been more corruption in Pakistan during the government of former premier Nawaz Sharif.

Awan had accused the TI of being biased towards the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, stating that former prime minister Nawaz had provided a diplomatic posting to the NGO's chairman to gain undue favours.