LAHORE: Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman, NAB, said corruption is a curse. That really is a poison. We must put down it with an iron hand. NAB is committed to eradicating corruption by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy across the board for corruption-free Pakistan. He said this while chairing a meeting to review the NAB’s performance at the NAB Headquarters on Friday.
He said the NAB is essentially a complaint driven organization established to eradicate corruption and recover looted money from corrupt. The NAB has chalked out a very comprehensive operational methodology for proceeding of cases, complaint verification, inquiry and investigation. The NAB’s investigation officers strictly follow the Code of Conduct and zero tolerance policy on the basis of evidence as per law. The year 2014 can be called a year of reinvigoration of NAB, he said. He said the concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” (CIT) has been introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working as a team for a fair, transparent and unbiased inquiry/ investigation.
He said the NAB has recovered Rs285billion which all has been deposited into the national exchequer which is a record achievement. He said the NAB has received 321,318 complaints which were all disposed of according to the law.
The NAB has authorized 7124 inquiries, 3616 investigation and filed 2610 cases in the respective accountability courts to proceed against alleged corrupt people since its inception. In a short span of 16 years, NAB’s performance is a record achievement which is better than any investigation agency of the world. Due to this reason, Transparency International as per latest report of 2016, Pakistan’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has improved adding that Pakistan is being considered as a role model in South Asian. Besides TI, independent national and international watchdogs like PLIDAT and World Economic Forum have also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to curb corruption in Pakistan.
He said the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations have almost doubled in 2016 as compared to the same period of 2015. Increase in number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trust in the NAB, he maintained.
He said youth is the future of Pakistan therefore NAB, in collaboration with the HEC, has established over 42000 Character Building Societies (CBS) in all the leading universities and colleges across the country to build an effective edifice against corruption.
He said the NAB has established a state-of-the-art forensic lab in Rawalpindi which has facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis.
