A delegation of Untied Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) led by Cesar Guedes, Representative of UNODC in Pakistan called on Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry at NAB Headquarters here on Friday. After the welcoming the delegation, Chairman NAB said corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines development and rule of law and is breeding ground for organized crimes in the society, perpetuates inefficiencies in the system and therefore spearheads regress.
The Chairman said our experience at fighting corruption has led us to understand that enforcement alone cannot be cure for corruption. It requires co-ordinated and concerted efforts with a three pronged strategy of awareness, prevention and enforcement.
He said NAB is aggressively pursuing awareness and prevention campaign to curb corruption and corrupt practices throughout the country. Conduct of seminar on Anti-Corruption at Aiwan-e-Sadre which was chaired by President of Pakistan on the eve of World Anti-Corruption Day shows the commitment of the government at highest level to check corruption.
He said the recent report of transparency International (TI) rated Pakistan's efforts for eradication of corruption as very laudatory in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rated Pakistan at 126 out of 175 which is a great achievement for Pakistan since 1995 due to NAB's efforts.
The PILDAT report for the last year also supports the position stated above as 42 percent people trusted NAB against 30 percent for police and 29 percent for government officials. The Chairman NAB discussed future road map of joint efforts between NAB and UNODC for including of Anti-Corruption agenda in UNODC Annual Programme for the year 2016-2018 and said NAB is working to sign MOU with UNODC in this respect. He said NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB Rawalpindi/Islamabad with the assistance of Australian Federal Police.
The Forensic Science Lab has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis. NAB intends to have assistance from UNODC for provision of equipment for Forensic Science LAB. He also sought help in establishment of NAB's Anti-Corruption Academy at Islamabad for capacity building of NAB officers/Officials. He thanked UNODC for provision of 300 standees and pamphlets with NAB message against corruption.
He said NAB is organising an anti-corruption walk on 10th March, 2015 at Aiwan-e-Sadre. He invited UNODC to participate in this walk. The Chairman NAB discussed future road map of joint efforts between NAB and UNODC for including of Anti-Corruption agenda in UNODC Annual Programme for the year 2016-2018 and said NAB is working to sign MOU with UNODC in this respect.
César Guedes said Pakistan is a key country and UNODC gives priority to its interaction with NAB. He said that Anti-Corruption is very challenging task. He appreciated the efforts of NAB in curing corruption especially its awareness camping in order to awaken people about the ill effects of corruption.-PR