PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday ordered the Transparency International (TI) to recall its National Corruption Perception Survey (NCPS) 2023 report and issue a revised survey report in light of the court observations.

On December 22, PHC Chief Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan ordered TI to furnish evidence regarding its report wherein judiciary was declared the second most corrupt institution of the province.

“Your organisation should withdraw this report if you do not have proof to substantiate this claim,” Justice Khan had observed last year and had asked TI board members to furnish evidence of any corruption in the high court.

During the hearing of the case on Monday, PHC ordered TIP that the revised report should be published and circulated in the manner and form of NCPS 2023.

The court sought explanation from TI about missing data regarding 788 responses and asked it to show the exact number of rejected forms as to how many were rejected in the case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“After accurate number of forms are ascertained, accurate percentage shall be provided,” the court ordered.

PHC also ordered the TI board to explain and include the 87%, 85% and 57% claims in the revised NCPS 2023 report for readers. The court observed that TI must not leave key findings buried in the data to be discovered by lay readers from reading between the lines.

Justice Ibrahim ordered TI to set out clearly the inherent limitation of perception survey in the revised NCPS 2023 and the explanation provided in its response of January 15, 2024, should be included in the revised report.

The court observed that it was disappointing that TI did not show willingness to correct the report on its own.

Had TI showed willingness to revise and rectify the report, there would have been no need for order of the court, it added.

Justice Khan observed that it was made clear that the aim of the judgment was not to limit the freedom of expression or objective and credible research and was rather meant to encourage reliable, valid and credible research that would assist the institutions and serve public interest.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2024