Good governance and corruption

Transparency International released its corruption perception report of 2016. According to this report, Pakistan made improvement in its image and perception. The present government take the credit to reduce the corruption at the top. Transparency International compile its index on the basis of the perception that exist in a country about the government. The opposition parties rejected the report as one sided and against the reality.

One has to accept the fact that perception always stronger than the reality. The matter of the fact is that there was a strong perception in the masses towards PPP government as being corrupt. The media was used to bring out mega corruption scandals every day. The Supreme Court was used to take sou-moto actions on these media stories.

The situation is different with the present government. There are few corruption scandals appeared in the media. Despite all the propaganda from the opposition against the government, there is perception in the masses that present government is less corrupt and more transparent compare to the previous government. Now this is a perception that exist. One can agree or disagree with this perception.

There is no doubt that governance has improved in last four years. The government can take credit for that. But lot needs to be done in this regard. There is serious need of radical reforms in the state institutions and political system. The system is not working at the lower level. The government departments and state functionaries responsible to provide basic services to the masses are indulge in rampant corruption. The inability and casual attitude is another problem which still exists. The government might be able to reduce corruption at the top level but on the lower level it does exist and also striving.

The ordinary citizens face insulting attitude and corruption of the state functionaries in their daily life. The corruption will not go away until the government introduce reforms to improve the attitude and delivery of the state institutions. The governance needs lot of improvement. If its possible to reduce corruption at the top then its equally possible to reduce it on the lower level.

The corruption is the order of the day when one deals with police, lower judiciary and revenue department. There is no improvement made in this regard. The culture of the corruption needs to be changed. The government should focus to root out corruption on the lower and medium level. The people will not get any relief without improving the governance at the grass root level. The system should be made answerable to the people. The bureaucracy must be reined in to do so.