KARACHI (THE THURSDAY TIMES) — Pakistan’s latest National Corruption Perceptions Survey for 2025 offers a more hopeful picture of governance than the country’s reputation suggests, with a majority of citizens saying they did not face a bribery demand in the past year and many acknowledging the state’s efforts to stabilise the economy, even as corruption remains one of their top concerns.
The National Corruption Perception Survey 2025, conducted by Transparency International Pakistan and partner organisations, draws on the views of 4,000 respondents across 20 districts in all four provinces. It is the largest exercise of its kind to date, deliberately structured to include urban and rural communities, women and men and persons with disabilities, and is described as a more robust and representative snapshot of public sentiment than previous rounds.
The report is clear about what it measures. NCPS 2025 does not quantify actual corruption or adjudicate individual cases. Instead it records how people experience public institutions in their daily lives and what they perceive when they deal with offices, officials and public services. These perceptions are treated as indicators of public trust and as signals of where reforms are most urgently needed, rather than as a forensic audit of graft.
The exercise is also ring fenced from Pakistan’s global ranking. NCPS 2025 is a domestic survey conducted by the national chapter and does not feed into or alter the country’s position on the global Corruption Perceptions Index. For policymakers in Islamabad and the provinces, it functions as a local mirror rather than an external scorecard, aimed at informing internal debate and reform rather than international comparisons.
Within that frame, several findings stand out as modest gains for the state. One headline number is that 66 per cent of respondents say they did not encounter a situation in the previous twelve months where they felt compelled to pay a bribe for public services. The report notes that this suggests the pressure of day to day corruption is not a universal experience, even if a sizeable minority still reports being squeezed in specific interactions.
Another cautious positive for the government appears on the macroeconomic front. Approximately six in ten respondents either fully or partially agree that the authorities have helped to stabilise the economy through Pakistan’s programme with the International Monetary Fund and through the country’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force Grey List. That response, while not an endorsement of every policy, indicates public recognition that difficult decisions on debt, currency and regulation have had some stabilising effect.
At the institutional level, the survey records a small but meaningful gain for the police. Public perception of the force has improved by six percentage points, which the report links to changes in behaviour and service delivery associated with reforms. Education services, land and property administration, local government and taxation also show improved ratings compared with the last survey, suggesting that efforts to streamline procedures, expand access and introduce technology are beginning to register at street level.
If NCPS 2025 gives the state some credit for progress, it also sets out a detailed agenda for what comes next. Respondents express a strong preference for better accountability, tighter limits on discretionary powers for officials and stronger Right to Information laws. In effect, the survey hands policymakers a ready made reform menu, signalling that citizens want institutions to be strengthened and constrained by clear rules rather than weakened or bypassed.
The public message to oversight bodies is particularly pointed. Seventy eight per cent of respondents say that anti corruption institutions such as the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency should themselves be more answerable and more transparent. That finding supports the case for reforming watchdogs from within rather than delegitimising or abolishing them, and it gives the state political cover to professionalise and depoliticise these agencies if it chooses to do so.
The health sector emerges as another priority area where citizens are, in effect, offering policy guidance. The survey records support for stricter control of pharmaceutical commissions, clearer rules for doctors’ private practices and stronger regulators backed by effective complaint mechanisms. Taken together, these preferences create a blueprint for cleaning up one of the most sensitive and heavily used parts of the service landscape.
On politics and public spending, the numbers are equally clear. More than 80 per cent of respondents want business funding of political parties to be either banned outright or placed under strict regulation, and 55 per cent favour the removal of political names and images from government advertising. In practical terms, the public appears to be telling the state to separate campaign money from policy and to stop using taxpayer funded projects as vehicles for partisan branding.
Perhaps the most important opportunity for the state lies in the willingness of citizens to participate directly in anti corruption efforts. The survey finds that 42 per cent of respondents would feel safe reporting corruption if strong whistleblower protections were in place, and that people value anonymity and clear reward mechanisms in any reporting system. That level of readiness, if matched by legal safeguards and credible reporting channels, could become a powerful asset for enforcement agencies.
At the same time, many respondents say they are unaware of formal reporting channels or doubt that their complaints will be handled neutrally. Closing that gap is less a question of public enthusiasm and more one of state design. By building accessible, well advertised and trusted reporting mechanisms, and by demonstrating that whistleblowers are genuinely protected, the authorities could turn the survey’s findings into a foundation for more effective enforcement.
NCPS 2025 does not disguise the fact that corruption remains a leading concern for Pakistanis, shaping trust in institutions and affecting how they see governance. Yet it also shows a public that recognises certain stabilising steps, notices incremental improvements in some services and is prepared to support reforms that would strengthen, rather than collapse, the machinery of the state. For a government willing to engage with those findings, the survey reads less like a rebuke and more like a conditional vote of confidence, paired with a detailed list of what citizens want fixed next.
