Pakistan is among those countries which has continued its statistically significant downward trend in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2022, hitting its lowest score since 2012, revealed a report by Transparency International on Tuesday.

According to the TI, Pakistan ranked 140 out of 180 countries. 

In 2018, Pakistan ranked 117 out of 180 on the CPI, but over the years, it has slipped to reach 140 in 2021.

This year, while Pakistan’s rank remained the same as last year, its CPI score slipped to 27, deteriorating from the previous year’s score of 28 and placing Pakistan amongst the list of ten countries that significantly declined in the CPI scores.

The CPI, which measures how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by its experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100 where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

While charting the CPI, the Transparency International has cited political turmoil in Pakistan. It sated that Prime Minister Imran Khan came to power promising to tackle rampant corruption and promote social and economic reforms, but little has been accomplished on any of these fronts since he took the reins in 2018. After he was ousted in a no confidence vote this April, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified him from running for office for another five years and filed a plea in session court for criminal proceedings over allegations he failed to declare gifts and profits he made from selling them during his tenure. Khan has begun a separate court case against the ECP, challenging the ECP’s jurisdiction over candidate qualification. While awaiting the verdicts from these two cases, it’s most important that the new government does not allow such political scandals to derail comprehensive anti-corruption efforts. 

The TI suggested that it’s time for concrete action with a holistic and effective anti-corruption plan that addresses illicit financial flows and introduces safeguards for civic space.

The significant decliners with their respective CPIs according to the report are Luxembourg (77), Canada (74), the United Kingdom (73), Austria (71), Malaysia (47), Mongolia (33), Pakistan (27), Honduras (23), Nicaragua (19) and Haiti (17).

India and Bangladesh also retained their spots, ranking at 85 and 147, respectively.

The report shows that most of the world continues to fail to fight corruption with a staggering 95 percent of the countries making little to no progress since 2017.

The TI also stated that in light of the Global Peace Index (GPI) report, “the world continues to become less peaceful”.

“There is a clear connection between this violence and corruption, with countries that score lowest in this index also scoring very low on the CPI”, the statement added, “governments hampered by corruption lack the capacity to protect the people, while public discontent is more likely to turn into violence.”

Denmark tops the index this year with a CPI of 90, with Finland and New Zealand following closely, both at 87. Strong democratic institutions and regard for human rights also make these countries some of the most peaceful in the world according to the GPI.

Countries embroiled in protracted conflict remain at the bottom of the CPI. These include Somalia with a CPI of 12 as well as South Sudan and Syria scoring 13 each.