Global Integrity Report: Pakistan - 2010
This peer-reviewed country report includes:
Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.
Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.
Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.
HIGHLIghts
In Pakistan, the Supreme Court has recently challenged or reversed appointments of officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) – the highest-level government entity dealing with corruption in the country. These developments have been crucial in the context of the fight against corruption by ensuring that honest professionals are put in charge of the NAB. Despite those bright spots, the overall score of Pakistan on the Global Integrity Report: 2010 has not materially improved from 2008. The media's ability to report on corruption remains challenging; while there are legal provisions guaranteeing the freedom of the media, in practice journalists still face significant threats to personal security. In addition, significant portions of the Pakistani population remain disenfranchised, due largely to problems with electoral rolls. Other challenges remain in enforcing conflicts of interest safeguards across much of government, as well as professionalizing the civil service (in the case of the latter, the problem of implementing rules already on the books is especially accute). The national ombudsman is relatively effective, but problems remain in promoting accountability over law enforcement agencies, many of which suffer from resource constraints.