ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that the institution’s officials will double their efforts for the eradication of corruption.
Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan had termed corruption to be one of the biggest curses, he said while addressing NAB officers during his visit to the bureau’s Karachi office.
He said that NAB was essentially a complaint-driven organisation that was established to eradicate corruption and retrieve looted money from the corrupt. He said that NAB had chalked out a very comprehensive operational methodology for proceeding of cases, complaint verification, inquiry and investigation. “NAB’s investigation officers strictly follow the code of conduct and zero-tolerance policy on the basis of evidence as per the law,” he said.
He said that to close the possibility of any single NAB officer/official influencing the discharge of official business, the concept of a “combined investigation team” (CIT) was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant were working as a team for a fair, transparent and unbiased, inquiry/investigation.
He said that in a short span of three years, NAB’s performance had improved significantly. Due to this reason Pakistan’s ranking in the corruption perception index (CPI) had improved, as per the Transparency International’s report in 2016. He said that Pakistan was now being considered a role model in South Asia for its efforts against corruption. “This is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB’s efforts.”
He said that the CPI in Pakistan, according to the Transparency International report, had been declining since 2013 due to steps taken by NAB against the corrupt. “Besides TI, independent national and international watchdogs like PLIDAT and World Economic Forum also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to curb corruption.”
He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations had almost doubled in the first five months of 2017 as compared to the same period of 2016. “The comparative figures are indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of NAB staff in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty.”
