LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Mian Tariq Misbah has told the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that “the business community is of the unanimous view that corruption in the state organs is rampant and damaging the growth of economy for which administrative reforms are inevitable”.
“The private sector’s perspective about corruption is quite clear as we (business community) are of the unanimous view that corruption in the state organs is damaging the growth of economy,” the LCCI chief was quoted as categorically telling the NAB officials during a joint session held at the LCCI on Wednesday. The session was organised to create awareness among the businesspeople regarding anti-corruption laws.
Mian Tariq Misbah said that administrative reforms are imperative if the government really wanted to root out corruption from society. He said the objectives against corruption can only be achieved if NAB and other concerned departments, both at national and provincial levels, work in harmony.
He said that we should be concerned over the fact that Pakistan is ranked considerably low on the Corruption Perceptions Index prepared by the Transparency International. “Our country is consistently slipping down from the last three years in this Index,” he regretted. The LCCI president mentioned that Pakistan stood at 117th place in 2018 whereas in 2019 and 2020, it further went down to 120th and 124th places, respectively, out of 180 countries. This low ranking implies that Pakistan is not making sufficient progress towards tackling the menace of corruption, he added.
However hailing the NAB initiative of the awareness drive, Mian Misbah said that there is a wave of curbing corruption according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and they expect that significant measures will be taken to eliminate corruption through a well-rounded approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement.
“Being the premier business support organization of the country, the LCCI has always advocated for strong measures for making Pakistan a corruption-free country and acknowledged the importance and efforts of NAB as Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption organization,” he maintained.
NAB Lahore Director Syed Muhammad Husnain while speaking on the occasion said that corruption is an evil which hits all the sectors hard whether that is economy or the public interests. He said the bureau is on the mission to eliminate corruption through enforcement of laws and awareness in the society.
While elaborating the functions and operations of NAB, the director threw light on different types of white collar crimes happening in Pakistan and also informed the participants about their efforts for bringing back the hard-earned money of the masses.
He said through this event, the representatives of business community will be made aware of the adverse impacts of corruption, particularly on the economic progress of an emerging economy like Pakistan. The session was also attended by LCCI VP Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry, Assistant Director NAB Munazza Tasneem and experts from various sectors.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021