‘NAB committed to eradicating corruption in country’

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Sunday said that the bureau was committed to eradicate corruption with absolute ‘zero-tolerance’.
He directed all the officials of the organisation to put their best efforts with using all available resources to arrest corrupts. While inspecting of the NAB Police Station at Multan, he said it was encouraging for the organisation that for the first time anti- corruption has been made a part of development agenda in the country in context of good governance, said a press release issued here. The Planning Commission has included a chapter devoted to issues of corruption in the 11th Five Year Plan and “we intend to work closely with Planning Commission to achieve the goals set in there,” he added.
Qamar Zaman said that the NAB has constituted a prevention committee on Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to identify the loopholes in the taxation rules of FBR and to recommend measures for plugging the heavy leakages caused through corrupt practices.
The committee comprises serving and retired senior taxation officers, private sector, transparency international, state bank and other stakeholders, he said. The Chairman said one of the major issues of developing countries was corruption with its manifestations as bribery, nepotism and embezzlement leading to socio-economic problems. Therefore the need to encourage people to stand up in the fight against corruption. Whistle Blowing Law will help people who are courageous and prepared to lift the lid on corrupt practices in the country, he added.
Qamar Zaman said that the NAB was already in liaison with Ministry of Law that Whistleblower Protection Law may be promulgated in Pakistan. He said the experience of NAB shows that struggle against corruption is not the fight of one man, one institution rather the responsibility lies on every citizen. “We can only win this war through collective efforts,” he maintained.