Pakistan now one of most corrupt countries in world: Transparency International

[Naveed Yaseen]

Another TI shocker coming today
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: According to the latest Transparency International (TI) corruption report, Pakistan has become more corrupt as compared to 2008, diplomatic sources said on Monday.

The TI is likely to announce its report today (Tuesday) and a diplomatic source from a key European country confided that the TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2009 does not bring good news for Pakistan.

Declining to share the details of the report which the diplomat claimed to possess, he said Pakistan had moved up quite a few positions in the list of the most corrupt countries.

“You should not be surprised to see Pakistan doing even worse than one of your neighbouring countries that was on top of the list of the most corrupt nations in mid 90s,” the diplomat said.

Only in September, the Transparency International had issued a stinging indictment on the eve of a high-profile New York meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan where President Zardari was to meet US President Barack Obama. Then the TI had stated: “How can one expect from any donor to come forward to assist Pakistan in its current financial crisis, when there exists no law against corruption.”

Releasing the annual report, the TI chief in Pakistan, Adeel Gilani, had said that anti-corruption efforts in the country had taken a 180 degree turn after Gen Pervez Musharraf issued the National Reconciliation Ordinance on October 5, 2007, 56 days after the ratification of the UN Convention against Corruption.

The timing of the TI report’s release will bring embarrassment for President Zardari, whose government’s credibility is already being questioned internationally because the president’s own image and that of many of his key players are plagued by serious corruption charges.

When the print media carried the last TI report, PPP Secretary Information Fauzia Wahab had charged the Transparency International of conspiring against the elected government. She had also said that carrying such a report by the media was like working against the interests of Pakistan.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=25614