Pakistan declared ‘More corrupt’ than before

Transparency International has declared Pakistan more corrupt than before in its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for the year 2020.

According to the details, the Transparency International, the leading civil society organization, working to end corruption worldwide, released its corruption perception Index of year 2020 on Thursday (today). The index for 2020 draws on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business people.

Chairman Transparency International Pakistan Chapter Sohail Muzaffar said that the country scored just 31 points in the latest index. He said that, the National Accountability Bureau claimed to have recovered Rs 365 billion in corruption in last two years, despite these claims; Pakistan is declared more corrupt than before.

The 2020 CPI report highlighted the impact of corruption on government responses to the novel coronavirus, comparing countries’ performance in the index to their investment in healthcare and the extent to which democratic norms and institutions have been weakened during the pandemic.

The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people.  It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Pakistan’s ranking in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index was 124 out of 180 countries. They country’s ranking in 2019 was 120 with a score of 32. In that year, with an average score of just 44 for three consecutive years, the Asia-Pacific region made little progress in fight against corruption.

It is pertinent to mention here that Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for the year 2020 has raised many questions about the trustworthiness, reliability and the integrity of the present government, being led by the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf.

Prime Minister Imran Khan in his addresses on different occasions reiterated to end corruption from the society.

In his address this month, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the society has accepted corruption as a norm and it is not considered a crime, and status quo is in vogue everywhere.

He said in order to change the society and mindset, the nation would have to consider corruption as an evil, otherwise it could not be eliminated just through law enforcement.

He said any NRO to the opposition leaders for their corruption cases would ease out his life but it would be disastrous for the country.

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