Police, judiciary top most corrupt in Pakistan: survey

Police was found to be on the top rung of the corruption ladder in Pakistan, Transparency International Pakistan’s (TIP) National Corruption Perception Survey (NCPS) said on Friday.

Meanwhile, tendering and contracting ranked second most corrupt, the judiciary was found to be third most corrupt and education climbed to the fourth position in terms of graft.

The NCPS 2022 survey showed no confidence in anti-corruption entities including National Accountability Bureau (NAB). It noted that at the national level, the majority of people considered anti-corruption institutions’ role as "ineffective" in curbing corruption in Pakistan.

In Sindh, the education sector was declared the most corrupt, followed by the police and tendering and contracting. Meanwhile, in Punjab, the police was found to be the most corrupt sector, tendering and contracting was seen as the second most corrupt, while the judiciary was the third most corrupt.

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Similarly, judiciary topped the list in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), tendering and contracting and police ranked second and third respectively.

In Balochistan, tendering and contracting remained the most corrupt sector, police was seen as the second most corrupt, while judiciary was the third most corrupt.

Citizens also lamented that they had to grease the palms of concerned people before getting access to public services, including contracts of roads (40 per cent), uninterrupted electricity (28 per cent) and clean drinking water (17 per cent).

Causes of corruption

The survey identified delayed decisions in corruption cases (31 per cent), use of state institutions by governments for their personal gain (26 per cent) and incompetence of the government (19 per cent) as the three most important causes of corruption

In Sindh (43 per cent) and Punjab (29 per cent) citizens consider the “use of state institutions by governments for their personal gain” as the primary reason for corruption in Pakistan. While people in K-P (43 per cent) and Balochistan (32 per cent) consider “delay in decisions of corruption cases” as the main reason for corruption in Pakistan.

Transparency in flood funds

The survey also pointed out the need for transparency and accountability in the utilisation of funds and response to recent floods. At the national level, about 62 per cent of Pakistanis considered the role of local NGOs as effective and better during devastating floods.

However, 70 per cent of Pakistanis believed that the funds were not distributed transparently during the recent floods in Pakistan and 60 per cent of Pakistanis believe that the donations and relief operations of the NGOs working in flood relief activities should be more transparent.

The report further said that the majority of Pakistanis (64 per cent) say that Pakistan has not benefited from the IMF agreement dated 12th May 2019.

At the national level, 54 per cent of citizens believe that the news channels’ reporting was biased.