Corruption in Pakistan

Corruption in Pakistan is widespread, particularly in the government and lower levels of police forces. According to 2016 results of Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, Pakistan ranks 116th place out of 176 countries with its previous score of 127 out of 175 in 2013. Pakistan saw a significant improvement in its statistics in 2013 when its ranking improved by 12 indices compared to its previous rankings – 139 out of 174 in 2012, 134 out of 182 in 2011, 143 out of 178 in 2010, and 139 out of 180 in 2009.

Corruption has plagued Pakistan from the very moment it came into existence. It was the unrepentant display of amongst its powerful bureaucracy and the West Pakistani Punjabi Muslim landowners that partly led to the secession of East Pakistan into the nation-state of Bangladesh. Later, nationalisation policies prepared under the government of prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto paved the way for the corrupt elites to politicise the nation's economic planning resulting in a public outcry against corruption. This led the military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to draft policies regarding denationalisation of institutions which only ended up benefiting a few rich business magnates such as the future prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was also a protégé of the military dictator.

In recent times, the 2008–2013 coalition government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party is criticised as the most corrupt government in the nation's history. This led to the sudden decline in corruption in 2013 when the PPP-led government was voted out from office. Since then, there is a growing need to reform accountability and anti-corruption policies at higher levels within the state government.

The Dominion of Pakistan was created as a result of the Pakistan Movement in 1947. Upon gaining independence, Pakistan inherited a strong bureaucracy and army from the British Raj. There has since been no major change in this bureaucratic set up since it was first implemented by British, albeit reforms were proposed by the Musharraf regime in 2007. This has led many to speculate that "corruption has seeped into the higher echelons of bureaucracy" where "corruption cases are [mostly] reported against irregular and ex-cadre appointments". It was by the late 1960s that the bureaucracy started being portrayed as an "instrument of oppression". In multiple reports published by the World Bank, the Pakistani bureaucracy was seen as being rife with corruption, inefficient and bloated in size with an absence of accountability and resistant to change.

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