LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry Tuesday said the most effective way to create awareness among masses about corruption and its consequences was to indulge the youth in anti corruption campaign.
Addressing the oath taking ceremony of Character Building Society (CBS) here at University of Engineering and Technology (UET), he said the NAB had initiated the programme to form character building societies to eliminate the corruption at grass root level, therefore about 10,000 CBS societies were established in which 150,000 members have been registered.
The chairman said that United Nations (UN) organised World Anti Corruption Day on December 9 in which UN’s member states make resolve to put in place comprehensive measures in order to end corruption and create awareness to prevent the menace.
Terming corruption the second biggest challenge faced by the country after terrorism, he stressed the need for evolving the same measures which were taken against terrorism on war footing with firm determination to eradicate it. Corruption was among the top reasons of terrorism, he added. He said that the NAB organized a number of awareness drives including walks and lectures as the prevention and awareness were among its core functions.
On the occasion, the chairman also inaugurated the database system of the CBS and also administered the oath to CBSs including students and teachers from various districts of Punjab. Later, he awarded the cash prizes and certificates among the position holders of various contests including singing, painting and debate.
The NAB officials signed the Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with three universities UET, Government College University (GCU) and Virtual University (VU) for cooperation, interaction and further strengthen the efforts to end corruption.
Addressing the ceremony, NAB Director General Punjab Syed Burhan Ali said that corruption was the reason that halted national progress and prosperity, deprive people of their fundamental facilities including education and health, adding that all social issues were interrelated to the corruption which should be resolved.
