‘NAB committed to dealing corruption with iron hand’

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said Friday that corruption is root cause of all evils and the NAB is committed to eradicate corruption with iron hands with the realisation that eradication of corruption is our national duty.

"The NAB has devised proactive Anti-Corruption Strategy especially operational methodology by setting three stages for proceeding of cases complaint verification, inquiry and investigation," he made these remarks while chairing a meeting to review performance of all wings of NAB at NAB headquarter. 

The chairman NAB said the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to the same period of 2015 to 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. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB. 

The PILDAT in its report supports the position stated above as 42% people trusted NAB against 30 % for police and 29 % for government officials. The recent report of Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 117. He said Pakistan has role model for Saarc countries in eradication of corruption and made first chairman of Saarc countries Anti-Corruption Forum which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB's efforts. 

The World Economic Forum and Mishal Pakistan according to Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum rated Pakistan from 126 to 122. 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. 

On bilateral cooperation, NAB has signed MoU with China to streamline and structure and cooperation in the fields of anti-corruption. In the context of CPEC this cooperation will further boost confidence in projects undertaken in Pakistan. 

Another MoU is proposed to be signed with Malaysia. Details are being worked out. He said NAB has established 42 thousands Character Building Societies (CBS) in Universities and Colleges. This initiative of NAB has proved very successful in order to aware students about the ill effects of corruption. More and more universities/colleges are joining hands with NAB in its country wide campaign against corruption and it is expected that this number should reach to 50 thousands at the end of this year. 

In line with the directions of Establishment Division, Government of Pakistan, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) assigned National Testing Service (NTS) to recruit 135 officers from BS-16 to BS-19. National Testing Service (NTS) gave advertisement for recruitments of 135 posts of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from BS-16 to BS-19 in the national newspapers as well as placed NAB advertisement at NTS Website. National Testing Service (NTS) received 45372 applications against 135 posts of National Accountability Bureau (NAB). National Testing Service (NTS) after scrutiny of applications conducted written tests throughout the country and short listed 1531 candidates for psychological tests against 135 posts of BS-16-BS-19. 

National Testing Service (NTS) has called 1531 candidates against the 135 posts of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from BS-16 to BS-19 for psychological tests as per criteria of 1:10 ratio of top merit for each position.