A NEW transparency survey has once again highlighted Pakistan’s familiar governance paradox: even though fewer people might have personally encountered corruption, the latter is widely seen as pervasive across the state. The Ipsos-FPCCI Index of Transparency and Accountability results in Pakistan show a widening gap between public perception and the reality of corruption in the country. A staggering 68pc of respondents reported that they did not personally face a situation requiring them to pay a bribe but they still believed that bribery is common within state agencies. Similar gaps have been reported for nepotism and illicit enrichment, both seen as widespread but rarely encountered directly. This gap between perception and lived experience signifies a defining feature of the chronic trust deficit between ordinary Pakistanis and the state institutions with which people have to frequently interact on a near daily basis. In other words, the survey paints a picture of public institutions burdened by a reputational loss that far exceeds most citizens’ actual experience.

That said, corruption perception surveys — even if they are not a measure of actual corruption — are considered a barometer of public anger and frustration against deteriorating governance at points where the state interacts with its citizens. They show how hopeless and disillusioned people feel, underpinning the fact that public frustration with corruption is real even if it is an assumed condition of the state. The iTAP results also underline that state departments may suffer reputational losses even when public interaction with them is limited. For example, the FBR, district administration and the judiciary rank among the most corrupt in public perception, despite minimal interaction with them by the respondents. The reputational deficit of the state departments is as damaging as actual corruption. This can be gauged from the fact that a large portion of the population would rather pay more in indirect taxes than become direct taxpayers. However, the results show that digitisation, especially mobile apps, of state functions could help bridge public distrust and improve accountability in government departments. Nadra’s high satisfaction ranking and improved perceptions of the traffic police, attributed to e-challans, underlines this. Indeed, technology cannot completely eliminate corruption. But it can shrink the space in which corruption thrives, minimise discretion and ensure greater accountability.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2026