Pakistan falls two spots on Corruption Perception Index

KARACHI: Pakistan appears to be faltering in its fight against corruption. According to Transparency International’s latest report released on Tuesday, the country’s ranking on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) slipped in 2024, falling to 135th out of 180 countries with a CPI score of 27/100. Pakistan’s global standing has weakened from 133rd place in 2023.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by how corrupt their governments are perceived to be. The ranking goes from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

The CPI report also highlights a correlation between climate vulnerability and corruption, adding that most countries highly susceptible to climate change score below 50 on the index; nearly 6.8 billion people, or 85 per cent of the global population, live in countries with CPI scores below 50.

This corruption puts countless lives at risk by hindering the effectiveness of crucial climate projects. “Huge numbers of people are at needless risk because corruption is impairing climate projects meant to protect them,” the report said, stressing the urgent need for coherent transparency and accountability measures to safeguard these funds.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Chair of Transparency International Pakistan Justice (r) Zia Perwez said, “In CPI 2024, the score of all countries in the region except Oman, China, Turkey and Mongolia has reduced,” adding that Pakistan’s CPI score dropped by two points, from 29 in 2023 to 27 in 2024, while its global ranking fell from 133rd to 135th out of 180 countries. Despite this decline, he said, the country remains among the countries “that are holding up against the overall trend in the region”. Transparency International Pakistan added that the annual CPI report, published by Transparency International Berlin, is independent of Transparency International Pakistan (TIP), which has no role in the data collection or scoring process. According to a Transparency International document listing Pakistan’s CPI ranking and scores from 1996 to 2024, the CPI has fluctuated under different administrations. During the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM-led) coalition government in 2023, the country ranked 133rd with a score of 29/100, while in 2022 under the PTI and the PDM, it stood at 140th with the same score of 27/100. The highest ranking in recent years was in 2017 under the PML-N government, when Pakistan stood at 117th with a score of 32/100.Per the report, Denmark retained the top spot for the seventh consecutive year with a score of 90, followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84). In contrast, fragile and conflict-affected states recorded the lowest scores, with South Sudan (8), Somalia (9), Venezuela (10) and Syria (12) ranking at the bottom. Over a quarter of the countries surveyed (47) posted their lowest CPI scores to date, including Austria (67), Bangladesh (23), Brazil (34), Cuba (41), France (67), Germany (75), Iran (23), Mexico (26), Russia (22), and the US (65).