Pakistan fails to improve on Corruption Perceptions Index

• Pakistan fails to improve on Transparency International's latest CPI. 
• Pakistan further declines with score of 27, worst in a decade.
• TI report shows most countries are failing to stop corruption.

Amid an economic crisis, Pakistan failed to improve in Transparency International's (TI) latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI 2022) as it retained its place among 180 countries in the world.

The countries and territories included in the survey are ranked by their perceived levels of public sector corruption — scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) — on the CPI.

Pakistan ranks 140th out of 180 countries with a score of 27 — the worst in a decade, a Transparency International report showed Tuesday. In 2021, the country slipped 16 places to 140 from 124 out of 180 countries.

The TI report shows that most countries across the globe are failing to stop corruption.

"More than two-thirds of countries score below 50, while 26 countries have fallen to their lowest scores yet," a statement from the corruption watchdog said. It further stated that a total of 155 countries couldn't even make any significant progress in the fight against corruption since 2012, "despite concerted efforts and hard-won gains".

Meanwhile, the global average remains unchanged for over a decade at just 43 out of 100.

The corruption watchdog noted that the country "continued its statistically significant downward trend" of the last 10 years.

"In 2018, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan took the reins of the country promising to combat widespread corruption and promote reforms on the socio-economic fronts but no significant improvement was made," said the watchdog.

The report stated that incumbent government must make sure that it "does not allow such political scandals to derail comprehensive anti-corruption efforts" and stressed that it was time for the country to take “concrete action with a holistic and effective anti-corruption plan that addresses illicit financial flows and introduces safeguards for civic space”.

Corruption - a key cause of deteriorating global peace

As per the report, corruption has been a key cause of deteriorating global peace and vice versa for the last 15 years.

"Corruption undermines governments' ability to protect people and erodes public trust, provoking more and harder to control security threats."

Meanwhile, conflict opens doors for corruption and undermines governments' attempts to combat it.

The report stated that the countries with high CPI are key players in threatening global security as "they have welcomed dirty money from abroad, allowing kleptocrats to increase their wealth, power and destructive geopolitical ambitions" for decades.