Daily Times

The PTI government on Friday rejected the report by Transparency International, issued a day earlier, which revealed that corruption increased in Pakistan in 2019, compared to the preceding year.

Pakistan was ranked 120 out of 180 countries on the report by TI, an international non-governmental organization based in Berlin.

According to global watchdog’s 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the government was unable to curb malpractices since the year before. In 2018’s report, Pakistan ranked 117 with a score of 33. However, in 2019, Pakistan was ranked 120th out of 180, with a score of 32 out of 100, meaning that corruption has slightly increased.

Mr Muzaffar said that the National Accountability Bureau under its present chairman has performed much better, and NAB was rejuvenated after it took various initiatives, including adopting the combined investigation team (CIT) system, in order to have collective wisdom in the conduct of inquiries or investigations on merit.

“It is our fault that we did not fawn over the head of TI’s Pakistan chapter and allowed him to retire after the expiry of his term,” said Awan. This is contrary to what the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) did which explains why the reports during their term were so favourable, she added.

“Who will respect the findings of a report that says the most amount of corruption was done during the government of Gen Pervez Musharraf, followed by Imran Khan’s government and then by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), placing the PML-N government at the very bottom?

“‘Corruption kings’ are using this report as a tool to hide their sins, but they will be disappointed. Moody’s and other international agencies have not only recognised an improvement in the country’s economic indicators but have also appreciated the efforts being taken by the government.”