KARACHI, Dec 5: The Pakistan People’s Party has condemned the regime for the alleged rise in corruption and lack of transparency despite the massive amounts spent by it on National Accountability Bureau. In a statement issued from Bilawal House on Monday, PPP-P Vice Chairman Amin Fahim said the report by Transparency International have exposed the regime’s hollow claims of combating corruption.

The TI’s Corruption Perception Index for 2005 rates Pakistan at No 144 with Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Paraguay and Tajikistan, making it the fifth most corrupt country.

Amin Fahim said Pakistan’s rating was tied in 6th position as the most corrupt country in 2004 whereas it was at 11th position in 2003. Now it had graduated to the fifth position, which showed further rise in corruption.

It proved what the PPP had all along maintained that NAB was in fact a political tool being used by the regime for political re-engineering, he said.

The PPP had been seeking to wipe out corruption by documenting the economy and that was why it was scandalized by vested interests who were looting the country through cooperatives, politically motivated written off loans and procurements without audit, he said.

The TI report showed that the regime claims to have eliminated corruption were wrong.