Pakistan drops 16 places to 140th on the Corruption Perception Index.

Transparency International, a global corruption monitor, has put Pakistan at 140th out of 180 nations on its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2021, dealing a big blow to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-(PTI) Insaf’s accountability narrative.

The CPI is a worldwide watchdog index that rates nations “based on their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as judged by expert evaluations and opinion surveys.”

The PTI, which came to office with the promise of eradicating corruption, has experienced a rise in graft across the country during its three-year tenure.

Pakistan placed 117 out of 180 on the CPI in 2018, but it has fallen every year over the last three years, falling to 140 in 2021. Pakistan was placed 126 on the index in 2020.

Pakistan received a CPI score of 33 out of 100 in 2018, however this has been decreased to 28 in the 2021 report due to increased corruption. In 2019, Pakistan received a score of 32, while in 2020, Pakistan received a score of 31.

A “country’s score represents the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100, where 0 indicates severely corrupt and 100 means very clean,” according to the TI website.

Transparency International-Pakistan Vice-Chair Nasira Iqbal claimed in a statement that Pakistan’s low CPI score was due to a lack of rule of law and state capture.

“The absence of Rule of Law and State Capture has resulted in a much lower CPI 2021 score for Pakistan compared to CPI 2020, from 31/100 to 28/100, and rank from 124/180 to 140/180, but there is no change in CPI 2021 ratings for India and Bangladesh compared to CPI 2020,” she noted.