Transparent just got clarified

 

34 per cent respondents said the Nawaz Sharif government in 1997-1999 was more corrupt than Sharif's previous rule in 1990-93 that was found corrupt by only 10 per cent. Only 8 per cent labelled Benazir Bhutto's first government as corrupt as compared to 48 per cent who found her second government as corrupt. But the attempt at damage-control aside, the percentage of the people who found both 'tenures' of the Pervez Musharraf government corrupt was higher as compared to Benazir or Nawaz.

 

The contentious question put to 4,000 respondents in the four provinces of the country was: 'In Pakistan which government was/is the most corrupt; and what about the present government?' Syed Adil Gillani, chairman Transparency International Pakistan tells TNS the question was framed to compare the two 'tenures' of the same ruler, and not to match stints of one ruler with those of another. In Musharraf's case, of a total 4,000 respondents 32.69 said his first tenure was corrupt and 67.31 per cent put the same tag on his second.

 

Gillani recalls that in a 2002 Transparency survey of 3,000 respondents, the Benazir and Nawaz governments were considered corrupt by 48.70 per cent and 43.03 per cent respectively. Musharraf's government was considered corrupt by only 3.17 per cent; Ziaul Haq's by 1.53 per cent and Ayub Khan's by 2.17 per cent. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto emerged as the least corrupt and cleanest of all Pakistani rulers with 1.4 per cent.

 

Isn't Transparency International being soft on the present government, with whose National Accountability Bureau (NAB) it is working? Adil responds by saying that Transparency International's agenda is to work with the government to bring in reform. "Look at NAB now. It is more reform-oriented under Transparency International's guidelines," he says.

 

He said Transparency International should be given credit for introducing a uniform procurement policy, as previously there existed around 28 different systems of procurement awhich was causing widespread corruption.

 

As to why didn't Transparency International Pakistan work with previous Pakistani rulers -- say in 1996, when it dubbed the Benazir Bhutto regime as one of the most corrupt in the world -- Gillani says back then the TIP did not follow the code of conduct of Transparency International that makes it a mandatory neutral setup which does not take names or take sides. The then TI Pakistan chapter was dismantled and only revived in 2001.

 

Adil Gillani also explains this survey would not be part of international corruption perception index that rates the countries' corruption perception levels for the investors. The Berlin-based Transparency International says its index is not an assessment of the corruption level in any country -- rather it is an attempt to assess the level at which corruption is perceived by people working for multinational firms and institutions as impacting the commercial and social life. If a country has an issue with its ranking, this lies not with the index but rather with the perception that businessmen polled apparently have of that country. Their perceptions may not always be a fair reflection on the state of affairs, but they are a reality.

 

Transparency International has certainly taken its time clarifying its position; that its findings should not be interpreted to be against a government. It did not say so during Benazir's time for instance, although in its 1997 report it recognised: "The impact of the index was perhaps greatest in Pakistan. The anger of people in Pakistan over their government's participation in rampant corruption was catalysed by Pakistan's position as second-worst in the world table. Suddenly, this anger became focussed, accompanied by the bitter feeling that Pakistan had 'deserved better' from their political elite. The reaction to the index in Pakistan was remarkable: Embassy and opposition party representatives visited TI in Berlin to ask for clarification. Many Pakistanis contacted TI which promoted the creation of a network in Pakistan and made TI a household name."

 

And that was not the only time the index had ignited shock waves in the country -- not the only time where the perception may have contributed in the ouster of a (political) government.

 

The Musharraf government also used Corruption Perception Index to pillory the previous regimes or using it as a touchstone to measure his government's anti-corruption campaigns. National Accountability Bureau's annual report describes the Nawaz-Benazir era marked by "prevalence of rampant, pervasive, institutionalised and endemic corruption in Pakistan. Moral values, societal norms and religious ethos were set aside and wealth accumulation became the primary objective. Five successive governments were dismissed in this period on charges of corruption without completing their tenure.... "

 

Later NAB again quoted that Transparency International had declared Pakistan as the second most corrupt nations out of 58 surveyed in 1996 and that "As per a general estimate, in past years almost 20% of the GDP has been lost through corruption and corrupt practices annually."

 

Not surprisingly, NAB has not commented on the latest Transparency report.

 

In the opinion of the 4,000 respondents quoted in the Transparency survey the three most corrupt government departments in Pakistan are police (64 per cent) power (11 per cent) and judiciary (9 per cent). In 2002, the police were of course ranked first followed by power and then taxation.

 

In response to the query 'In your opinion which Province is the most corrupt?' The respondents of each Province considered their own province as the most corrupt except NWFP, where Punjab was rated as most corrupt of the four provinces.

 

The report concludes that in spite of the best efforts of the government the corruption menace appears to be still at large. Bad governance of all the ten departments (covered in the survey), combined with the public ignorance, impatience attitude & seeking shortcut solution of the consumers has aggravated situation.

 

 

 

Courtesy: The News Pakistan

In an obvious damage control exercise, the Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) is taking pains to clarify that its National Corruption Perception Survey 2006 does not find the Pervez Musharraf government to be more corrupt than the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

 

The attempt at rectification came after a Transparency International survey said that 32.69 per cent of the respondents cried 'corrupt' when they were asked to give their verdict on the Prevez Musharraf government during 1999-2001. The percentage went up to a whooping 67.31 per cent when the same question was put as regard to Musharraf's 2002-2006 rule.

A survey that has been previously used to reconfirm just 'how corrupt' governments in Pakistan were now places the current rulers under the same cloud

By Nadeem Iqbal