The Chairman NAB Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is committed to come up to the expectations of the nation for corruption free Pakistan.
Our father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan had termed "One of the biggest curses is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison. We must put it down with an iron hand", he said in a statement issued here on Sunday.
NAB is essentially a complaint driven organisation which was established to eradicate corruption and looted money from corrupt. NAB had chalked out a very comprehensive operational methodology for proceeding of cases complaint verification, inquiry and investigation, he added. The chairman said, NAB's investigation officers strictly follow Code of Conduct and zero tolerance policy on the basis of evidence as per law. The year 2014 can be called basically a year of re-invigoration of NAB, he said.
He said that to close the possibility of any single NAB officer/official influencing the discharge of official business, the concept of a "Combined Investigation Team" (CIT) was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working as a team for a fair, transparent and unbiased, inquiry/investigation.
He said that NAB has recovered Rs 277.909 billion since its inception. NAB has received 321,318 complaints which were all disposed off according to law. NAB has authorised 7124 inquiries, 3616 investigation and filed 2610 in the respective Accountability Courts to proceed against allegedly corrupt people since its inception.
In short span of 16 years, NAB's performance is a record achievement which is better than any investigation agency of the world. Due to this reason, Transparency International has rated Pakistan in 2014 from 175 to 126 and in 2015 from 126 to 117. This is because of effective Anti-Corruption Strategy of NAB which has started yielding dividends. Similarly PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan have indicated that 42 percent people have confidence on NAB as compared to FIA and Police.
He said that an effective accountability mechanism is quintessential for economic growth, investment and stability of social order. The intervention by NAB has acted as a catalyst, as transparency is a prerequisite for promoting investment and economic growth. Since its inception, NAB had adopted the Enforcement based approach in its fight against corruption. Special focus is therefore being given to Awareness and Prevention activities besides Enforcement to educate the people at large about ill effects of corruption. He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to the same period of 2014 to 2015 and in the six months of 2016.
The comparative figures for the latest two and half years are indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of NAB staff in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty.