DUBAI: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on Friday said that the Transparency International (TI) report on corruption in Pakistan was fabricated, baseless and a pack of lies.
The report stated that the volume of corruption in the country was even more than the country's annual budget.
In a statement issued here, he said the report had depicted daily corruption of Rs7 billion with its annual volume of Rs25.20 trillion in the country, which was the strongest evidence to prove its irrationality and falseness.
He observed that TI had modified its method this year and that the current score was incomparable with that of the previous year. Likewise, he said that Pakistan's 33rd ranking in comparison with being 42nd the previous year was illogical.
Kaira said no country maintained the same score during previous years as out of total 176 countries, around two-thirds of the countries obtained below 50 score, thus manifesting increase in corruption as a global phenomenon.
However, more corruption in South Asian states was worrisome as Nepal stood at 139 in the list of most corrupt countries, but South Asian states of Bangladesh and Afghanistan followed it depicting that the whole region was crippled with corruption.
He said the situation needed to be addressed through civil society, media, business community and the government using different techniques.
The information minister said even the countries located at the heart of the Euro Zone have been showing dismal progress in Consumer Price Index.
He observed that the world's top 85 multinational companies do not show their tax invoices on their corporate website.
Kaira said at parliamentary level, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was actively working for the first time in the country's history.
He said the PAC had recovered Rs180 billion indiscriminately that was also lauded by TI as it had helped reduce corruption, but now through this report, TI was negating its own stance.
He said at federal level, National Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation Agency were working while Anti-Corruption Departments were performing at provincial levels, which have also recovered embezzled amounts and acted against those responsible.
Qamar Zaman Kaira said the judiciary and media were functioning independently in the country and the courts had also taken suo motu notices on the basis of media reports. He said that several of those have been disposed of and plenty of others were subjudice.
“It is a fact that graph of corruption has come down owing to efficient performance of NAB and FIA as well as court cases,” he commented.
Kaira observed that TI had no mechanism in Pakistan to detect corruption in the institutions rather its findings were based on guesses and concocted figures carrying no truth.
The information minister said since Pakistan Peoples Party came into power, various reports have come to the scene regarding corruption, or about popularity graphs, but such elements neither achieved their targets nor would they do so in future.
“Despite all such nefarious propaganda, the democratic government was about to complete its tenure for the first time in history that would follow a caretaker government and then general elections. The PPP will come into power once again to serve the masses for the next five years,” the minister added.