Ask any layman as to what is the one factor that has destroyed the moral fabric of the Pakistani society, and the most cited answer would be corruption. The countrys rankings on the Transparency Internationals Corruption Perception Index (CPI), over the years, do not offer much respite either as they have been anything but flattering.
The latest report ranks Pakistan 34 out of 178 countries on the most corrupt scale. A cursory glance at Pakistans rankings might make one think that the overall level of corruption in the country has improved - from a rank of 3 in 1995 (the year when the CPI began publishing), Pakistan today stands at 34.
However, before one applauds the trivial improvement, note has to be taken that while in 1995 the CPI was drafted for a pool of 41 countries, in 2010, 178 countries have been brought under consideration.
Out of the 33 countries ranked above Pakistan in the CPIs most corrupt rankings for 2010, only one had also been included in the rankings drawn back in 1995 - Venezuela. The rest had been added later on over time.
It is also worth mentioning here that 12 of the top 15 countries on the Failed State Index (FSI) 2010, in which Pakistan was also ranked 10, are among those that beat Pakistan in being most corrupt on the CPI.
Is such an improvement in ranking worth an approbation?
On the contrary, there are many from whom Pakistan can derive lessons. The real show-stealer comes up as Bangladesh, which has risen from 1st place in 2001, 2002 and 2003 to the 37th place in 2010.
The country launched an army-backed anti-corruption drive in early 2007, whereby several former ministers of previous governments were detained, and measures were introduced to tackle corrupt activities such as embezzlement, etc. This effort received great ovation from the World Bank.
Even though the effect of additional countries being included in the pool have helped Bangladeshs rankings as it helped Pakistans, over the years, the countrys score has been on an upward trajectory, rising from 0.4 out of 10.0 (10 being the least corrupt) in 2001 to 2.4 today. This is opposed to Pakistan, the score of which has been quite erratic, hovering around the 2.0 mark since 1995, without much improvement.
An analogy reveals another interesting phenomenon - the overall average score of the CPI has decreased over the years, indicating that globally corruption is pervading more in the various countries surveyed.
Does this imply that globally the acceptability of corruption as means of oiling a countrys management has increased? The dangers of an increasing self-serving bias for conducting corrupt practices also prevail with this fact. Its about time global managers take note of this.
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