Virtually every state institution is severely malfunctioning. Pakistan has not formally annexed its Northern Areas, which form part of the disputed territory of Kashmir, in order to avoid legitimizing Kashmir s de facto partition by Islamabad, New Delhi, and Beijing. In October, the government established an assembly and high court in the Northern Areas. However, Islamabad retained financial and administrative powers, and the roughly one million residents are still not represented in the federal parliament. Christians and other minorities must vote on separate electoral rolls.
Women are significantly underrepresented in politics.
In October 1999, the Berlin-based Transparency International rated Pakistan 88th on its corruption index with the 99th country, Cameroon, being the most corrupt. The Mahbub ul Haq Center in Islamabad estimated that since the 1980s, corruption has annually cost Pakistan s economy roughly 1.25 percent of its gross domestic product. The judiciary consists of a supreme court, lower courts, and special courts, created under a 1997 antiterrorism law, which must conclude trials within seven days and which provide only limited procedural safeguards and rights of appeal. In January 1999, the supreme court abolished the special military courts Sharif had created in Sindh in 1998 to prosecute civilians for major offenses within three days, but not before the courts had executed two men. The supreme court is independent.