Corruption declines in Pakistan last year, says TI report

ISLAMABAD: The Transparency International (TI) report has stated that corruption in Pakistan has declined over the past year, ARY News reported.

Transparency International has released its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2016, which shows improved CPI rankings of Pakistan.

According to the CPI 2016, Pakistan’s score has gone from 30 to 32 points and has been ranked at 116th place in the index.

The report also mentioned that the country needs to make more efforts despite the improvement.

The corruption watchdog in its report last year, stated that Pakistan was the only country in South Asia that has improved its CPI score in 2015.

It should be noted that opposition parties in Pakistan have repeatedly blamed the federal and provincial governments of the present and the past of committing widespread corruption in government projects.

The federal government, led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and opposition parties including Pakistan People’s Party Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have locked horns over the issue in the Panamagate Case being heard by the Supreme Court.

The leaked papers, comprising 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, exposed how some of the world’s most powerful people have secreted their money offshore, and also implicated Sharif’s sons Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz.

Three of Sharif’s four children are named in the Panama Papers – daughter Maryam, who has been tipped to be his political successor and sons Hasan and Hussain – with the records showing they owned London real estate through offshore companies administered by Mossack Fonseca.

The Panama Papers have whipped up a storm of controversy over offshore wealth, ensnaring political leaders, sports figures and underworld members across the globe in the scandal.