Overview
- Pakistan’s Finance Ministry released the IMF’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment and reported Rs5.3 trillion in NAB recoveries from January 2023 to December 2024 to satisfy a condition for a $1.2 billion tranche expected to go to the IMF board next month.
- The Fund characterizes corruption as persistent and corrosive, saying it diverts public funds, distorts markets, erodes trust, and constrains domestic and foreign investment.
- The IMF urges a near‑term 15‑point agenda that ends procurement preferences for state‑owned enterprises, mandates nationwide e‑procurement within a year, enhances parliamentary checks on fiscal powers, and requires immediate transparency around the SIFC.
- As a case study of elite capture, the report cites an FIA probe into the sugar sector that found collusion to create shortages and manipulate prices after a government‑backed export push, with limited accountability despite detailed findings.
- Judicial risks feature prominently, with warnings about inefficiency, outdated laws, and integrity concerns, plus flags over the 26th Amendment’s impact on appointments and recommendations for clear selection criteria and ethics screening.