ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said eradication of corruption was the top priority of NAB.
“NAB is committed to eradicate corruption by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy,” he said in a statement. He said considering corruption as the biggest hurdle in the way of prosperous Pakistan, NAB was established as an apex anti corruption organization with a mandate to eradicate corruption and to recover hard earned looted money of innocent people from corrupt.
He said due to NAB’s proactive National Anti-Corruption Strategy to eradicate corruption, it had received about 3,43,356 complaints from individuals and private, public organizations.
During this period NAB authorized 11, 581 complaint verification, 7587 inquiries, 3846 investigations, filed 2808 corruption references in respective accountability courts and overall conviction ratio was about 76 percent. He said the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations were almost double as compared to the same period of 2014 to 2017.
The comparative figures for the last three years was 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 was being taken as a national duty. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB.
The PILDAT in its report supports the position stated above as 42% people trusted NAB against 30 % for police and 29 % for government officials.
The recent report of Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 116 which was a great achievement for Pakistan due to Chairman NAB’s efforts.
The World Economic Forum and Mishal Pakistan according to Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum rated Pakistan from 126 to 122 this year which was a great achievement of Pakistan due to NAB efforts.
He said NAB had devised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to rationalize the workload and timelines had been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months- from complaint verification-to- inquiry-to-investigation and finally to a reference in the Accountability Court. He said NAB was committed to eradicate corruption from the country by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy for corruption free Pakistan.
He said NAB’s Anti-corruption strategy proved very successful which was continuing in 2017 due to its effectiveness. He said NAB hoped that joint efforts of all stakeholders could collaborate to check corruption and corrupt practices before happening with the help of all stakeholders, civil society, media and people at large.He said NAB was mandated to carry out Awareness activities functions against corruption in pursuance of Section 33C of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).
Under NAB’s proactive Awareness and Prevention campaign across the country, NAB had been engaging different Governmental, Non-Governmental Organizations, media, Civil Society and other segments of society in order to aware people about the ill effects of corruption.
He said as per the positive feedback received from various segments of society about NAB’s Awareness and Prevention campaign was very encouraging as print and electronic media gave extensive coverage in highlighting such a national cause throughout the country which is appreciated.
