Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro stressed the need for promulgating pre-emptive laws to root out the menace of corruption from society. He was speaking at a seminar on "Good Governance and the Menace of Corruption" organised by National Accountability Bureau (Sindh) in collaboration with Hamdard School of Law held at a local hotel here on Saturday.
Khuhru said the bad governance and corrupt practices could be controlled/ decreased through lawful command and added that the parliament should be considered as a supreme institution of the state as it worked as a watchdog on government expenses. Moreover, he said that the anti-corruption exercise should be practised across-the-board with no discrimination and nobody or institution was allowed to run affairs without accountability. He said that simplicity should be defined as top priority.
He said the need of the hour is to promulgate pre-emptive laws to eradicate corruption from society and if the new laws were not formulated, the existing legal system must be implemented in its true spirit. In his keynote address, Wajid Ali Khan Director General NAB said that the major factor behind most of the administrative reasons for corruption was that internal controls of institutions have become ineffective due to vested interests of a few corrupt elements.
He said that corruption weakened democratic institutions and undermined the rule of law and the bad governance also discouraged foreign investments and enabled terrorists to finance their nefarious designs. He said the bureau has received 5497 complaints during 2009-12, of which, some 5314 complaints were processed and some 233 inquiries were finalised. Moreover, he said some 141 investigations were initiated during aforesaid period, of which, 71 investigations were concluded.
DG NAB also stated that the accused persons involved in NAB investigation consented to pay Rs 1504 million through plea bargain and the department had so far recovered around Rs 1104 million in this connection. He further said the accountability courts had also decided 107 cases during the said period and the accused persons were convicted in 31 cases while acquittals were made in 70 cases and six cases were withdrawn. Several other speeches were made by Justice (R) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Barrister Jahanzeb Awan, Nida Khan and Advocate Muhammad Akmal Wasim.