ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: Chief Coordinator of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal has said the Global Competitiveness Report for 2004-05, released by renowned World Economic Forum , has exposed President Gen Pervez Musharraf's claims about rebuilding of national institutions and economy during the last five years.

In a statement here on Monday, the PML-N leader said public and national institutions had taken a heavy toll in the last five years, throwing Pakistan at the bottom of international public institutions ranking.

He said Pakistan's country ranking had also shown a sharp decline in the Growth and Competitive Index (GCI), falling from 73 in 2003 to 91 in 2004 in the company of Ecuador (90) and Mozambique (91).

In public institutions, he said, Pakistan got the worst 102nd position, out of the rated 104 countries with a score of 2.87, just better than Chad and Bangladesh with Indian institutions at 53rd spot with 4.45 score.

He said the WEF report had found Pakistan, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Vietnam, Venezuela and Zimbabwe among the countries showing largest drop in their rankings during 2004.

Pakistan's score on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of the Transparency International has also slipped down further in 2004 to 2.1 from 2.5 in 2003 and from 2.6 in 2002, he added.

"Highly visible instances of official corruption, a crackdown on press freedom and other civil liberties, which contribute to capital outflows and harden the mood of the business community, political instability linked to domestic infighting in some cases leading to civil unrest, a weakening in the rule of law have, to a greater or lesser degree, been prominent in some of the above cases, and are the reasons explained in the report for the falling scores in the GCI 2004," he said.

He said the GCI was composed of three factors: the quality of macroeconomic environment, the state of a country's public institutions as well as technological readiness.

On the quality of macroeconomic environment, he said, Pakistan had comparatively scored better with 3.63, ranking 67th, where it was helped by post-9/11 situation. However, on the state of public sector institutions, Pakistan has got the worst 102nd position, out of 104 countries.

The score of Finland is 5.95; US 5.82; Malaysia 4.88; China 4.29; India 4.07; Indonesia 3.72; Sri Lanka 3.57; Pakistan 3.17; and Chad is the lowest at 2.50.

The Business Competitiveness Index (BCI), the second measurement of competitiveness prepared by the WEF, is a complement to the medium-term, macroeconomic approach of the GCI. It evaluates the underlying microeconomic conditions defining the current sustainable level of productivity in each of the countries covered.

This poor performance under the Musharraf government, he said, showed that it had failed to allocate sufficient resources to improve the quality of educational system and to address major public health concerns.

Also, it reflects deterioration in law and order situation and growing political instability leading towards Pakistan's rapid fall behind other countries. He said in the emerging global scenario, Pakistan could not afford the luxury of military and one-man rule at the expense of its national institutions.

"Pakistan needs political consensus and unity to face the daunting task of reforming its economy and society for meeting challenges of the new knowledge revolution age."