ISLAMABAD: In its Corruption Perception Index for 2009, the Transparency International has placed Pakistan at the 42nd place, slipping five places from 2008 when it was at 47.

Most of the 180 countries included in the 2009 index scored below 5 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).

The Chairman of the Pakistan Chapter of Transparency International, Syed Adil Gillani, said that because of lack of governance and massive corruption the country had lost credibility and was facing serious economic threats, poverty, inflation, food and electricity shortages and increase in unemployment.

He said the government must make serious efforts to apply rules and regulations across the board to achieve the goal of reducing corruption.

Mr Gillani said Pakistan needed good governance and a transparent administration to counter corruption scams of billions of rupees in Pakistan Steel, TDAP, EOBI, PIA, rental power plants, KESC, NIC, NHA, OGDC, PSO, PEPCO, CDA, DP Division, DHAs, TCP, NBP, PC and many other organisations.

Mr Gillani said that the political will of the government to curb corruption was urgently required and it must also be seen by public and donor countries, like formation of an independent accountability commission as required by the UN Convention against Corruption under the HOPO Act, 2009.

This commission should report only to parliament or judiciary and not to the ministry of law, and it should look into corruption of all holders of public offices belonging to civil services, armed forces, judiciary and elected representatives.

There were some bright spots in the report — Bangladesh, Belarus, Guatemala, Lithuania, Poland and Syria were among the countries that have improved the most.

The highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0.