Transparency International Pakistan chief says country set to improve ranking. PHOTO: FILE
BERLIN/ KARACHI:
Pakistan has climbed 12 spots from a ranking of 139th to 127th on the global corruption perceptions index in 2103, improving both its image and score over previous years, a Transparency International survey has shown.
“It seems that the corruption [level] will fall further in the coming years,” said Sohail Muzaffar, the chairman of Transparency International Pakistan, commenting on the country’s fresh ranking. “This is a good sign for Pakistan,” he told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club.
Though India fared better than Pakistan, appearing at 94th place on the index, it moved up just one spot from 95th last year. China took the 80th position. In stark contrast, India has slipped 22 ranks down since 2007, an evident outcome of the country’s economy having been battered by major scams — biggest of them being the 2G scam.
This year Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are seen as the world’s most corrupt countries while Denmark and New Zealand are nearly squeaky-clean, Transparency International said.
Worldwide, almost 70% of nations are thought to have a “serious problem” with public servants on the take, and none of the 177 countries surveyed this year got a perfect score, said the Berlin-based non-profit group.
Among countries that have slipped the most on the group’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index are war-torn Syria as well as Libya and Mali, which have also faced major military conflict in recent years. “Corruption is very much linked to countries that fall apart, as you see in Libya, Syria, two of the countries that deteriorated the most,” said lead researcher Finn Heinrich.
Heinrich said Afghanistan is “a sobering story. We have not seen tangible improvements”.
Thumbs-up for present govt
Muzaffar gave the present government a thumbs-up for good governance, although it has been in power for six months. Investment, according to him, has been enhanced appreciably. In comparison, Muzaffar said, investment in Pakistan was depressing during the last government of the PPP.
(With additional input from news wires)
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2013.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Great news to hear that the current government is improving things in Pakistan. Living abroad I can definitely say that Western impressions of Pakistan as one of the few functioning democracies in the Islamic world has made the country appear much better than most Muslim states.