Eradicating corruption is a top priority: Pakistan president
On International Anti-Corruption Day, Alvi urges citizens to “stand together”
- Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi issues official message about corruption in the country on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.
- He urges citizens to help the government in the fight against corruption.
- "The government is committed to eradicate this cancer," he wrote.
- Social media users praise him for his dedication.
Dubai: Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi has turned his attention towards eradicating corruption in the country on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.
In an official message shared on the government of Pakistan’s official Twitter account, Alvi was quoted as saying: “The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) being the apex anti-corruption agency of Pakistan has been mandated to keep this menace in check as well as to create awareness among the public at large about corruption. The government is committed to eradicate this cancer.”
The bureau, he says, is focusing on the “importance of eradicating this curse from the homeland, which is one of the top priorities of the present government”.
He further urged Pakistani citizens to “stand together in bringing about the change” and contribute towards the efforts that the country is putting in to put an end to corruption.
This message has resonated with social media users in the country.
Tweep @Kashif_Javed10 posted: “Corruption is one of the biggest global issues, ahead of extreme poverty, unemployment, the rising cost of food and energy, climate change, and terrorism. On #AntiCorruptionDay, let’s pledge to put an end to corruption altogether for a better Pakistan.”
@Amna_Emaan tweeted: “Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism. And today we have honest leadership like @ImranKhanPTI fighting against this menace of corruption vividly. Let’s stand together to eradicate this evil from Pakistan. #AntiCorruptionDay”
Tweep @ah_afridi added: “#Pakistan must point out the black sheep involved in public and private sector corruption. #AntiCorruptionDay”
According to a report published in Dawn, a Pakistan-based newspaper, the country was placed at the rank of 117 out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, released by Transparency International, a Berlin-based nonprofit organisation focusing on combating global corruption. The index ranks countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
The report further states that Pakistan’s score was 32 in 2017. The index uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
In his message, Alvi emphasised that “corruption in Pakistan hurts the economy as well as business”.
He wrote: “Corruption in a nation’s political and economic operations causes its entire society to suffer. Each year, billions of rupees of the public money are lost because of corruption in the form of embezzlements, bribes and misappropriate of funds, which directly affect the ability of the government to provide even proper basic services to the public and denies them their fundamental rights.”