Claim: Transparency International has ranked Pakistan’s army as being the most corrupt institution in the country
Fact: Transparency International released a survey ranking Pakistan’s police force as being perceived to be the most corrupt institution in the country. The army was not included in the survey.
A graphic posted on social media claims that Pakistan’s army has been named the country’s most corrupt institution by Transparency International. The logo of the digital news outlet Startup Pakistan can also be seen on the graphic. Soch Fact Check found that the statement on the graphic is false. Furthermore, we could not find any evidence that Startup Pakistan had uploaded any such news on their official platforms.
Fact or Fiction?
Multiple accounts on social media have posted a picture of former Chief of Army Staff General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa standing with several other army officers. Text superimposed onto the picture reads, “Pak Army Tops the List of Most Corrupt Institutions of Pakistan: Transparency International”.
Soch Fact Check found no evidence of such a statement being released by Transparency International. However, Transparency International Pakistan did release its annual National Corruption Perceptions Survey (NCPS) earlier this month. The NCPS measures public perceptions of corruption within various state institutions. These are then used as a barometer to rank various institutions in order of most to least corrupt.
The NCPS 2022 ranked the police forces as being perceived as most corrupt on a national level, followed by departments responsible for tendering government projects, the judiciary, and the public education sector. These same institutions were perceived as being most corrupt on the provincial levels, albeit in varying order. Having seen the survey’s results, Soch Fact Check found that Pakistan’s army was not included at all.
Furthermore, the graphic in question carries the logo of the local news outlet Startup Pakistan. Soch Fact Check could find no evidence of the graphic being uploaded on Startup Pakistan’s website or official social media accounts. However, Startup Pakistan did upload a graphic stating that the police had been ranked as Pakistan’s most corrupt institution by Transparency International. This is in line with the NCPS’ results.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that this graphic has been shared by at least ten accounts with over 6,000 interactions across various social media platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Conclusion: A graphic posted on social media claims that Transparency International has ranked Pakistan’s army as being the country’s most corrupt institution. Soch Fact Check found no evidence of such a statement being made by Transparency International. A recent survey released by the organization ranks Pakistan’s police force as being the country’s most corrupt institution. The army was not included in this survey.