Combating Corruption in Pakistan – The Zubair Bhatti Way

Corruption in Pakistan has been a major cause of concern for Pakistanis as well as for the international community engaged in business or development in Pakistan. In the recent Corruption Perceptions Index, released in late 2010, the country received a low score of 2.3 on a 10 point scale (10=very clean, 0=highly corrupt) and was rated lower than the year before.

Although the government has been refusing to admit the existence of massive corruption, the recent Hajj scandal and a multibillion-rupee scandal at the National Insurance Corporation proved that corruption is rampant. At the grassroots level, bribes are needed to obtain registrations at any government department, while at top levels politicians and other influential people are frequently indulged in corrupt practices.

Astonishingly, in Jhang, a small city in Punjab province, Zubair Bhatti, a District Coordination Officer at the local land registry (Land Revenue Department), has been practicing a unique way to combat corruption at the grassroots level. The idea was simple. Bhatti started calling the individuals that were served by the department to check if they had paid anything over and above official charges. Within a couple of weeks, there was a marked reduction in corrupt practices in the preparation of land transfer documents or Intiqal.


The Punjab Chief Minister has ordered the implementation of this idea in six districts of Pakistan in cooperation with the World Bank. Simple but efficient, can this method of fighting corruption be rolled out in other provinces? Can the business community help build call centers that would undertake the job? These are the big questions awaiting answers.

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Combating Corruption in Pakistan