PTI govt’s 'anti-poor policies' giving rise to public outrage: Shehbaz

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has said that Transparency International Pakistan's latest survey confirmed how corruption has increased in the country during the last three years of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

"The plunder of the rulers and the anti-poor policy of the government is giving rise to public outrage which has an impact on the future of our state and society," Shehbaz, who is also president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), wrote on his official Twitter handle on Wednesday.

Earlier today, the survey of Transparency International Pakistan revealed that at least 85.9 per cent of Pakistanis believe that their income has been squeezed during the PTI government, whereas 92.9 per cent consider inflation and price hike to be the highest during the current government.

Read more: Over 90pc Pakistanis believe inflation highest during PTI govt: survey

The nationwide survey, National Corruption Perception Survey (NCPS) 2021, comprises the perception of levels and frequency of corruption faced by common Pakistanis on a daily basis.

“Compared to the three federal governments, majority of Pakistanis (92.9%) consider inflation and price hike to be [the] highest in the current PTI government [tenure] (2018-2021), compared to 4.6 % in [the] PML-N government (2013-2018) and 2.5% in [the] PPP government (2008-2013),” the report said in connection to the inflation.

According to participants of the survey, government incompetence was the main reason behind the rising inflation and shrinking income. At least 50.6% said the government was incompetent, 23.3% blamed it on corruption, 16.6% said lack of policy implementation was the reason, whereas 9.6% blamed the inflation on the meddling of politicians in government affairs.

Regarding the government’s anti-corruption drive, 66.8% said that the PTI government’s accountability drive was partial, whereas 85.9% considered the federal government’s self-accountability to be unsatisfactory.

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At least 51.9% of Pakistanis blamed weak accountability for rising corruption, whereas 29.3% linked it to the greed of powerful people and 18.8% blamed it on low salaries.

“As measures to reduce corruption, 40.1% Pakistanis say increase/stringent punishments for corruption cases, 34.6% Pakistanis say accountability of public officers by expediting NAB’s handling of corruption cases, and 25.3% say a complete ban on those convicted in corruption from holding public office, are key to combat corruption in Pakistan,” the TI Pakistan report noted.

According to the survey, police remained the most corrupt sector, followed by the Pakistani judiciary seen as the second most corrupt. Tendering and contracting made it to the third spot whereas the health sector jumped to the fourth position in the corruption index.

At least 41.4% of people thought police to be one of the most corrupt sectors, whereas 17.4% believed it to be the judiciary and 10.3% said contracting and tendering was the most corrupt sector.