Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Transparency International Pakistan(TIP), which last week released a global corruption perceptions report showing Pakistan had slipped three spots from the previous year’s ranking, on Sunday issued a clarification saying that the lowering of Pakistan’s rating did not “reflect an increase or decrease in corruption as it is within the standard margin of error”.
According to a press release issued on Sunday, the anti-graft non-government organisation (NGO) said it wanted to set the record straight and issue clarifications regarding “misreporting on CPI [Corruption Perceptions Index] 2019 in the media”. The statement says that certain sections of media misreported ratings of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index 2020, using data from the 2018 index instead. The data for the 2020 Bertelsmann Index, according to the statement, has not yet been made public and was exclusively made available to TI for the formation of its report. Responding to the government’s criticism following the release of the report, the press release clarified that TI had in no way termed the government of President Musharraf as most corrupt in the country, nor was the current government referred to as the second most corrupt one. The PML-N and PPP governments were also not called the “cleanest” ones.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Friday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan had lambasted the TI report, saying.
