Corruption in Pakistan is a well established phenomenon. The country has had a consistently poor ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index

Corruption Perceptions Index

Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private...

, being 143rd with a score of 2.3 out of 10 in 2010.

History

Pakistan was created as a result of the partition of India

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 and the British

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 left behind a strong bureaucracy

Central Superior Services of Pakistan

Central Superior Services of Pakistan is the civil service of the country. It was established in 1973 under Article 240 of the newly framed Constitution. The CSS Examinations are held in the start of every year to recruit the civil servants for the Civil Services of Pakistan.-Structure:The...

 and army

Pakistan Army

The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...

. The country was divided again when Eastern Pakistan seceded to form Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. A factor in this division was that Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

's elite and ruling class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

 had been Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

s who were displaced by the partition, while the Punjab's rich land-owning class were Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s and so had retained power.

National Accountability Ordinance

Individuals convicted under the National Accountability Ordinance are prohibited from holding political office for ten years.

Courts

In 2010, 69% of those surveyed reported that they or someone in their household was subjected to an act of corruption when interacting with the judicial system. Of 339 affirmative respondents asked to identify the actors involved in corruption, 119 said court employees, 84 said a public prosecutor, 50 said a witness, 44 said a judge, 29 said an opponent lawyer, 16 said magistrates, and 12 said others.

Education

As of 2010, 24% of those surveyed reported that they themselves or a family member received educational admission through non-normal. The countries biggest issue is presence of non uniform educational system.On one hand there are institutions modeled on western educational system; This system is run by private sector educational institutes that charge fees a ordinary citizen cannot afford. So essentially these institutes are utilized by the elite class( Politicians , Technocrats, Bureaucrats,Business class) .The same is also the reason for deteriorating standards of Public Sector educational institutes.As the elite class only enroll there children in private schools modeled on western institutes.

Than there are Government run public schools that face increasing challenges and due to incompetence of consecutive Governments has only accelerated the rate of their decline.Lack of funding, Elite class non utilization, Poor Governance ,Under qualified Faculty are some of the reasons for their falling standards.Corruption in education sector is not a novice in Pakistan . Embezzlement of funds , Thousands of ghost schools ( those that only exist in papers), taking bribe to sell confidential material to candidates,Poor utilization of funds, Educational Ministry run by illiterate politicians that lack vision for education.

Health care

In 2010, 42% of surveyed individuals reported gaining access to hospital services by a method other than standard admission, and 48% reported either having to pay additional costs for essential services or being forced to utilize the services of a designated affiliate. Of the respondents who were asked to identify which parties orchestrated the corrupt acts, 61% reported hospital staff, 25% reported doctors, and 13% reported nurses.

Law enforcement

According to 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2010 surveys, the majority of respondents consistently view the police as being the most corrupt sector of Pakistani government. In the 2010 survey, 31% of 4,224 respondents reported paying bribes to the police.

In 2005, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz

Shaukat Aziz

Shaukat Aziz is a world acclaimed Pakistani economist who was the 15th Prime Minister of Pakistan from May 20, 2004 to 15 November 2007 in a joint military government led by General Pervez Musharraf. A Citibank executive, Aziz returned to Pakistan from the United States to be became Finance...

 ordered an investigation into claims by a 23-year-old woman who alleged that, in retaliation for attempting to reveal police corruption, police falsely detained her for fifteen days and raped her.

As of 2010, videos captured of officers taking bribes in various locales such as Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

 and Quetta

Quetta

is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...

 have been uploaded to YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

.

Public utilities

As of 2002, 96% of surveyed individuals reported corruption issues with electrical utility officials during the past year. The most common types of corruption were billing related. Some consumers admitted to illegally reducing their utility bills, while others reported being harassed with inflated bills intended to solicit bribes. Out of the pool of corruption-affirmative respondents, 71% reported that money was "demanded directly by the actor".

Taxation

According to the 2002 study, 99% of 256 respondents reported facing corruption of taxation. Furthermore, 32% of respondents reported paying bribes to have their tax assessment lowered, and nearly 14% reported receiving fictitious tax assessments until a bribe was paid.

External links

Corruption in Pakistan at Transparency International–Pakistan

Transparency International

Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...