Islamabad
National Accountability Chairman (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that eradication of corruption is top Priority of NAB. NAB intends to curb corruption with iron hands by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy across the board for corruption free Pakistan.
He said that NAB has devised Standard Operating Procedure(SOP) to rationalise the workload and timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months-from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to-investigation and finally to a reference in the Accountability Court.
NAB has also introduced a new System of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers. This system will not only lend quality to the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings.
He said that concept of CIT has proved very successful in order to improve quality of inquiry and investigations and benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior officers. He said that NAB is committed to eradicate corruption from the country by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy for corruption free Pakistan.
He said that NAB's Anti-corruption strategy proved very successful in 2016. Due to its effectiveness, NAB has decided to continue its effective Anti-corruption strategy in 2017 in order to nabbing corrupt and recover looted money.
He said that the main focus of NAB is on cases of cheating public at large by fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, wilful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds by government servants etc.
He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to the same period of2015 to 2016. The comparative figures for the latest three 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.
The Chairman NAB said that NAB is role model for SAARC countries. Pakistan is first Chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption forum in order to have collaborative efforts for eradication of corruption on the basis of best practices. NAB has signed MOU with China in order to eradicate corruption.
Under this MOU, Pakistan and China will oversee and ensure transparency in Pakistan China Economic Corridor Projects. He said that to create Awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth of Pakistan, NAB in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Over 42, 000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) have been established by NAB in the country in universities/colleges to create awareness against corruption as youths are considered a vanguard in this fight. He said that NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB Rawalpindi/Islamabad.
The Forensic Science Lab has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis. The Chairman NAB said that NAB is Pakistan's apex anti-corruption organization which has established in 1999 with the responsibility of elimination of corruption enforcement.
NAB has its headquarter in Islamabad and eight Regional Offices located at Karachi, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Balochistan, Multan, Sukkur and Sub Office at Gilgit-Baltistan.
He said that NAB has mandated to carry out Awareness activities against corruption by engaging different Governmental, Non-Governmental Organizations, media, Civil Society and other segments of society in order to aware people about the ill effects of corruption.