ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan’s ranking in the global corruption index slipped slightly to 136th out of 182 countries, according to Transparency International (TI), which also listed Islamabad among countries considered dangerous for journalists investigating corruption.
The 2025 report covers 182 countries, two additional territories compared to last year, which also contributed to Pakistan’s global ranking falling one rank in the index.
Despite this drop in ranking, Pakistan’s score on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) improved slightly, from 27 to 28 in 2025. However, the country remains grouped with countries perceived as highly corrupt, such as Bolivia and Iraq. The score is much lower than Pakistan’s recent record of 33 in 2018.
TI’s annual flagship report comes days after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) announced recoveries of 11.5 trillion rupees ($41 billion) between 2023 and 2025, more than double Pakistan’s official foreign exchange reserves of $16 billion.
The CPI measures the perception of corruption in the public sector on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 indicates a high level of corruption and 100 a very high level of corruption.
As a reminder, India scored 39 with a ranking of 91, Bangladesh 24 with a score of 150 and Afghanistan 16 with a score of 169.
TI noted that small fluctuations in score are more significant than ranking changes, because rankings can be influenced by the performance of other countries.
The report also comments on the plight of journalists who investigate corruption cases.
“When journalists are attacked or killed for investigating corruption, those in power cannot be held effectively accountable and corruption tends to worsen,” the report said. Since 2012, in non-conflict zones around the world, 829 journalists have been murdered, the press release added.
The report highlights that 150 journalists have been killed while covering corruption-related stories, including five in 2025. “More than 90% of these assassinations took place in countries with a CPI score below 50, including Brazil, India, Mexico, Pakistan and Iraq, which are particularly dangerous for journalists covering corruption,” TI said.
He adds that the 2025 CPI shows that corruption remains a serious threat in all regions of the world, although signs of progress are limited. Leaders must act to address abuses of power and the broader factors driving this decline, such as the rollback of democratic checks and balances and attacks on independent civil society, the report said.
Pakistan also recently released the “Diagnostic Assessment of Governance and Corruption” report under the duress of the IMF. The IMF report paints a dire situation, as the global lender has asked Islamabad to introduce short- and long-term measures to combat corruption and poor governance, including improving the rule of law and the justice system.
The NAB recently claimed in its annual performance report that the corruption breaker had directly or indirectly recovered a whopping sum of Rs 6.2 trillion from the corrupt elements during the last year. He further claimed that direct and indirect recoveries of corruption proceeds amounted to Rs 11.5 trillion in the last three years alone.
Such a high level of collections of Rs11.5 trillion suggests the widespread corruption in Pakistan and also authenticates the 136th rank in the global index.
According to details provided by the NAB to the media, the recoveries were made through recovery of encroached lands belonging to the state and other organizations, as well as cash. These included rehabilitation of three million acres of encroached state and forest land, valued at around Rs 6 trillion.
NAB Sukkur has reclaimed 1.63 million acres of land worth Rs 3.73 trillion. It is not clear who assessed the land value or what methodology was used. NAB Balochistan is said to have reclaimed 1.02 million acres worth Rs 1.37 trillion, while NAB Multan is said to have reclaimed 330,000 acres worth Rs 654 billion, along with 51 kanals of state land worth Rs 29.4 billion in Islamabad.
