ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Pakistan has been ranked 142nd in this year’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International.

The country’s ranking is much worse than Nigeria, Rawanda and Burundi, but slightly better than Sudan and Haiti.

Pakistan continues to remain among “the concentration of so-called failed states at the bottom of the ranking”, says the report released on the International Anti-Corruption Day on Saturday.

The country’s ranking had plummeted since 2004, when the country fell to 129th spot from 92nd in 2003. It was ranked 87th in 1999, when President Pervez Musharraf overthrew the civilian government. The ranking briefly improved after the military takeover.

Pakistan’s score on the CPI table this year was 2.1on a scale from zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption. The index draws on multiple expert opinion surveys and poll perceptions of public sector corruption in 163 countries.

Transparency International said in its statement that although Pakistan had made efforts towards the strengthening of public procurement, the perception of corruption remained very high -– a situation particularly worrying given the amount of humanitarian aid pledged for reconstruction following the October 2005 earthquake.

It said a majority of people had a poor opinion of the government’s anti-corruption efforts – 60 per cent of the respondents surveyed were dissatisfied with government’s efforts, 19 per cent thought they were somewhat effective, 17 per cent had no idea and four per cent considered them to be very effective.

The survey found police to be the most corrupt department in the country, closely followed by political parties, parliament, tax and registry services, all having the same scores. Religious bodies were graded as the least corrupt in the country.

Most of the South Asian countries fared much better than Pakistan, with Bhutan ranked 32nd, India 70th, Sri Lanka 84th and Nepal 121st. Bangladesh at 156th was the only South Asian country placed below Pakistan.

India showed the greatest improvement in the region by jumping 18 spots from last year’s position.

The average score of Asian countries was 4.6.