Military debuts on TI graft list

Corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) for the first time has included Pakistan’s military in an annual survey, listing it as a notch more corrupt than the country’s education department. The Pakistan chapter of Transparency International reviews and ranks government departments according to the prevalence of graft in the system.“Our land revenue and police departments are on top in corruption. The judiciary is ranked fourth while military is in ninth position followed by the education department,” Sohail Muzaffar, TI Pakistan chairman, said.Tensions between Pakistan’s powerful military and weak civilian government have soared recently over alleged attempts by an aide of the president to enlist American help to curb its powers, citing a feared military coup in May.The army, feared and admired in almost equal measure, is widely considered perhaps the most professional institution in Pakistan.Transparency International adviser Adil Gilani said the military had been included “to dispel the impression that our surveys are biased.”“This time, we have ranked the military according to popular response about corruption in it. Next time we will have more comprehensive details,” he said.“It is public perception that others are more corrupt than the armed forces,” he added. Last year, the judiciary came in sixth.“Delay in case proceedings and punishment has heavily contributed to the development of a perception that the judicial system has also fallen prey to corruption,” said Gilani.The judiciary and courts became the fourth most corrupt from the sixth position recorded last year. Gilani claimed that corruption had reached an unprecedented level in Pakistan. The media report said that the rank of the police went down a notch to number two from the numero uno position. The land administration topped the list of most corrupt institutions or systems.Gilani said public perception was that others were more corrupt than the armed forces.The power sector, which had ranked second since 2002, was now in fifth position. Health was at eighth position.In an unrelated development, Pakistan rejected as biased the US report on the Nato airstrikes on two army border checkposts that caused the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers, a media report said.The Nov.26 airstrikes in Mohmand region bordering Afghanistan led to severe strain in the Pakistan-US relations.The US investigation report was rejected on the basis that with Brigadier General Stephen Clark as head, the investigation could never bring out unbiased findings, the Online news agency reported.Pakistan dismissed the report, saying Clark has been linked to the strategic team involved in the attack. Clark was an “inappropriate” choice to carry out the investigation as a neutral party, the media report said.The Pentagon said an American official in Islamabad has delivered the report to Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas confirmed receiving the report.The full report from the joint US-Nato investigative team was not released publicly to allow time for the Pakistani leadership to read the findings first, the Pentagon spokesman said in Washington.“We wanted General Kayani to be able to see the entire thing,” he said. It was “an appropriate professional courtesy” to Kayani, he added.An unclassified version of the report has been released by the military’s Central Command on its website. It reportedly revealed that an American AC-130 gunship flew two miles into Pakistani territory.Separately, Pakistan has calculated that vehicles carrying Nato supplies in containers caused damage worth Rs150 billion to its highways over the past 10 years.Communications Minister Arbab Alamgir Khan told Dawn that the National Highways Authority (NHA) carried out a survey to assess the cost of the damage. The survey showed that Nato vehicles caused Rs15 billion worth of damage every year to national highways and the total damage from 2002 to 2011 was calculated at a staggering Rs150 billion.