TI report doesn’t say corruption increased in Pakistan, clarifies TIP chairman

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Issuing a clarification statement on lowering of Pakistan’s score by one point on the CPI 2019, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) Chairman Sohail Muzaffar has said that TI report doesn’t imply corruption is increased in Pakistan. Amid the opposition’s severe criticism of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the wake of TI’s report, the TIP chairman said stated that the media, newspapers and some politicians had falsely speculated, and nowhere in the report it was mentioned that “corruption has increased in Pakistan”. “The CPI 2019 doesn’t say corruption has increased in Pakistan, and the misrepresentation can damage Pakistan’s repute and the data included in the Index doesn’t belong to the Transparency International and the report includes statistics from 13 different sources,” he clarified. “Lowered scored doesn’t [necessarily] implies that corruption is increased,” Sohail Muzaffar said. He praised efforts of the PTI government in curbing corruption with an acknowledgement that the NAB overall performance has improved in the tenure of the ruling party. He said the report is based mainly on data collected in the previous PML-N term from 2017 onwards. Muzaffar said at least eight sources were utilised for compiling the report, adding Pakistan’s falling one point below the 2018 score doesn’t point to increase or decrease in corruption in the year 2019. The TI's annual report on Corruption Perception Index (CPI) revealed that the corruption increased instead of decreasing in the tenure of incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. Despite the PTI-led government claims of tackling corruption, Pakistan worsened on CPI 2019 and country’s ranking drops three point in single year. According to the report of Transparency International, Pakistan’s ranking dropping to 120 out of 180 countries with a slightly worse score of 32 out of 100. It is pertinent to mention here that in the previous year, Pakistan’s ranking stood at 117—the same as in 2017—although it’s score had slightly increased to 33.

NAB in Pakistan performed well

The report clarified that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) performed well despite of increasing corruption in the country. The anti-graft bureau recovered 153 billion rupees. “The Transparency International Secretariat explained that in CPI 2019 many countries have not performed well this year,” Pakistan Transparency International Chairman Sohail Muzaffar to clarify Pakistan’s worsening situation in a press release issued alongside the report. “Implying that Pakistan being perceived as more corrupt was in line with worsening views of public sector organizations globally,” Muzaffar mentioned. He also applauded the NAB’s “transformation” but did not clarify how that squared with the anti-graft watchdog being perceived as a tool for political victimization—or criticism from the higher judiciary that NAB’s faulty prosecutions were damaging the body’s own image.