KARACHI: Director General of National Accountability Bureau (Sindh) Mohammad Altaf Bawany here on Thursday underlined the need for new legislation to also punish those who pay bribe and encourage this menace in the society creating serious problems for others who are forced to live with corrupt system.
There must be equal punishment for both payee and recipient of bribe, he maintained. Both al-rashi wal murtashi deserve to be in hell,’ he quoted a verse from Holy Quran while speaking at a seminar on ‘Role of Business Community in Curbing the Menace of Corruption’ organized at Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
President of KCCI Muffasir Atta Malik, Chairman of Businessmen Group and former president of KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, Senior Vice President Abdul Basit Haji Abdul Razzak, Vice President Rehan Hanif, former presidents Muhammad Zubair Motiwala, Haroon Farooki and Mohammed Haroon Agar were also present.
The Director General NAB Sindh regretted that there was no law with this accountability body to punish those who do pay bribe and contribute to making the public sector organizations’ working system corrupt.He urged that Pakistan could emerge as corruption-free country if every citizen became law abiding, hated all kind of illegal practices and started speaking only truth. He rejected the theory that because of low salaries in Government organizations, the employees were compelled to take bribe.
‘There is very minute difference between need based and greed based corruption,’ he remarked. He emphasized that everybody needed to be reformed and the people should be equipped with required information so that no government official could exploit them. He said there was strong relation between corruption and business as it increased the cost of doing business. According to international figures, it created 10 percent cost, but in Pakistan it added 20 percent to the cost.He said that the people, especially the business community, should read the NAB laws to clear misconceptions about this organization.
He advised that a businessperson should respond to a notice issued by NAB and explain one’s position in the case. It was NAB’s duty to take plea or opinion of an accused for further proceedings.
Mohammad Altaf Bawany said that NAB’s role was of monitoring. Through monitoring committees, it could revise, rather change the laws of a particular public sector organization to plug chances for corruption and misappropriation.
NAB was also working on, to revise the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan rules and procedures. It was binding on the concerned government organization to abide NAB’s recommendations. When his attention was drawn to the proposed amnesty scheme, the DG NAB made it clear that it would provide relief only to tax evaders. However, he continued, in case of illegally massed wealth, NAB would come into action.
He said that for creating awareness among the people against corruption, NAB in collaboration with academic institutions from universities down to schools, was holding awareness programmes in the country with focus on girls who were more important players in shaping a society.
President of KCCI Muffasir Atta Malik, Chairman Businessmen Group in KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, former presidents M.Zubair Motiwala, Anjum Nisar, Haoon Farroki and M.Haroon Farooqui spoke of the business community’s issues relating to NAB and Federal Board of Revenue.They assured, on behalf of members of Karachi Chamber, full cooperation and support in curbing corruption, especially in trade and industry.
