A survey has revealed that about 75% of people pay bribes to the police with 68% bribing courts in Pakistan.

The survey conducted by Transparency International (a global coalition against corruption) revealed these findings. Titled “Asia Pacific – Global Corruption Barometer” it included countries from Asia-Pacific region including Pakistan. The survey was conducted between July 2015 and January 2017 and included 21,861 people. About 1078 people from Pakistan were surveyed face to face in the survey.

Bribery Rate

According to the report overall bribery rate in Pakistan stands at 40%. This number accounts for service users who had paid a bribe in the past 12 months. Comparing the bribery rate by services/departments:

75% of users bribed the police

68% bribed courts

61% bribed the government’s water, sanitation or electric services departments

38% bribed for identity documents, voter’s cards or permits from government

11% bribed public clinics or hospitals

9% bribed public schools

Government’s Effort Against Corruption

Another interesting finding was that 55% of people think that the government isn’t doing well against corruption while the remaining 45% seem to disagree.

Bribery By Social Stature

Comparing different social classes of people who paid bribes, the poorest people paid the most bribes in Pakistan. About 64% of the total population (of poorest people) paid bribes compared with 24% of the richest.

Corruption Perception

The perception of the local population about corruption levels in Pakistan has also seen significant change in the past few years.

Out of the total respondents, 35% said that corruption in Pakistan has increased. 31% believe the corruption has stayed the same while 29% are of the opinion that corruption has decreased.

Comparing these numbers from the 2013 report by the same organization, only 8% believed the corruption has decreased. Meanwhile a huge 72% thought that corruption has increased and 19% thought it had stayed the same.

Corruption Perception by Departments

Breaking down the numbers for each service/department:

76% think the police is corrupt

62% consider the tax officials to be corrupt

59% thought that the government officials are corrupt

54% said that members of parliament are corrupt

44% think the same of the prime minister’s office

41% consider the judges and magistrates to be corrupt

35% think religious leaders are corrupt

The report also said,

The law and order institutions in Pakistan were the most likely of any country that we surveyed to accept bribes – around seven in 10 people who came into contact with either the police or the courts had to pay a bribe (75 per cent and 68 per cent respectively)

You can download the report here.