A survey has revealed that about 75 per cent of people pay bribes to the police with 68pc bribing courts in Pakistan.
The survey conducted by Transparency International (a global coalition against corruption) revealed these findings. Titled “Asia Pacific – Global Corruption Barometer” it included countries from Asia-Pacific region including Pakistan. The survey was conducted between July 2015 and January 2017 and included 21,861 people. About 1078 people from Pakistan were surveyed face to face in the survey.
Bribery Rate
According to the report overall bribery rate in Pakistan stands at 40pc. This number accounts for service users who had paid a bribe in the past 12 months. Comparing the bribery rate by services/departments:
- 75% of users bribed the police
- 68% bribed courts
- 61% bribed the government’s water, sanitation or electric services departments
- 38% bribed for identity documents, voter’s cards or permits from government
- 11% bribed public clinics or hospitals
- 9% bribed public schools
Government’s Effort Against Corruption
Another interesting finding was that 55pc of people think that the government isn’t doing well against corruption while the remaining 45pc seem to disagree.
Bribery By Social Stature
Comparing different social classes of people who paid bribes, the poorest people paid the most bribes in Pakistan. About 64pc of the total population (of poorest people) paid bribes compared with 24pc of the richest.
Corruption Perception
The perception of the local population about corruption levels in Pakistan has also seen significant change in the past few years.
Out of the total respondents, 35pc said that corruption in Pakistan has increased. 31pc believe the corruption has stayed the same while 29pc are of the opinion that corruption has decreased.
Comparing these numbers from the 2013 report by the same organization, only 8pc believed the corruption has decreased. Meanwhile a huge 72pc thought that corruption has increased and 19pc thought it had stayed the same.
Corruption Perception by Departments
Breaking down the numbers for each service/department:
- 76% think the police is corrupt
- 62% consider the tax officials to be corrupt
- 59% thought that the government officials are corrupt
- 54% said that members of parliament are corrupt
- 44% think the same of the prime minister’s office
- 41% consider the judges and magistrates to be corrupt
- 35% think religious leaders are corrupt
The report also said, “The law and order institutions in Pakistan were the most likely of any country that we surveyed to accept bribes – around seven in 10 people who came into contact with either the police or the courts had to pay a bribe (75 per cent and 68 per cent respectively).”
Courtesy: propakistani
