LAHORE: Chairman National Accountability Bureau Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, while addressing the officers of NAB Lahore after two day annual inspection said that as per the latest report of Transparency International (TI) of 2016, Pakistan’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has improved, adding that Pakistan was considering role model in South Asian countries in its efforts against corruption.
This is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB efforts. He said that corruption Perception Index (CPI) in the Pakistan as per Transparency International (TI), report was declining after 2013 due to steps taken by the NAB against the corrupt. Besides TI, the independent national and International watch dogs like PLIDAT and World Economic Forum had also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to curb corruption in Pakistan.
The Chairman NAB said that country is running speedily towards being a corruption-free country, while the NAB was focusing on awareness and preventive measures, and enforcement of laws so that the corruption could be nipped in the bud. He said that eradication of corruption is not our national duty but it’s a collective responsibility of all segments of the country. He emphasized upon NAB officers to double their efforts for eradication of corruption by adopting zero tolerance policy across the board. He said that NAB since its inception, recovered around Rs. 285/- billion of ill-gotten money from corrupt and deposited in the national exchequer which is a remarkable achievement of NAB.
The Chairman said that NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB Rawalpindi and has rationalize its workload and timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months which is a challenging target to investigate cases of even white collar crimes. NAB has also introduced a new System of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place. This will not only lend quality to the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings.
He said that youth is out future. NAB has emphasized on the character building of youth. More than 42 thousands Character Building Societies (CBS) have been set up in universities/colleges. We have set target for 2017 that the number of Character Building Societies (CBS) should reach at least at 50 thousands in order to aware students about the ill effects of corruption.
The chairman NAB said that NAB Lahore is important Regional Bureau which has played prominent role in contributing towards the overall performance of NAB. He directed all officers of NAB Lahore to adopt and demonstrate absolute fairness and transparency in discharge of their national duties. He said appreciated the performance of NAB Lahore under the supervision of DG NAB Lahore as NAB Lahore has graded excellent performance during 2016 with 99.97 percent on the basis of annual inspection conducted by Chairman’s Inspection and Monitoring Team and urged them to double their efforts in performance of their national duty by adopting Zero Tolerance Police across the board to eradicate corruption.
