NAB’s faith: corruption-free Pakistan

Corruption was the root cause of all ills being confronted by the country. It was also main hurdle in progress and prosperity of the country. Justice(r) Javed Iqbal immediately after assuming the coved post of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman on Oct 11, 2017 devised the policy of ‘Accountability for All’ but created the slogan NAB’s faith; corruption free Pakistan. From Oct 11, 2017 to Dec 31, 2018, the chairman transformed the Bureau into an effective, vibrant and trust worthy institute in just 13 months period.

The decision of Supreme Court of Pakistan of handing over investigations of Panama Papers case, 56 public limited companies, 435 offshore companies and fake accounts testifies this.

National Accountability Bureau under the guidance of Justice(r) Javed Iqbal had taken indiscriminate actions against corrupt elements in just 13 months which helped increasing people’s confidence over the Bureau. Over 59 per cent people reposed confidence over NAB policies in a Gallup and Gillani survey. Owing to that trust NAB had received about 54,344 complaints from Oct 2017 to Dec 31, 2018, the highest in a year period history of NAB. NAB had okayed 2,125 complaint verifications, 1059 inquiries, 302 investigations, 561 arrested and filed 590 corruption references in various accountability courts. NAB had also recovered record Rs4,200 million from corrupt elements and deposited in national exchequer. NAB also enjoyed 70.8 percent unprecedented conviction ratio in 2018 as comparing to matching institution’s performance.

NAB has so far received 408,431 compliments since inception. Out of which NAB approved 14,069 complaint verifications, 9,400 inquiries, 4,122 investigations arrested 3,913 and filed 3,488 corruption referenced in various accountability courts. NAB recovered record Rs289.991 billion from corrupt elements and deposited in national exchequer.

Right now, NAB’s 1,219 corruption references involving Rs900 billion corruption were at various stages of hearing on different accountability courts.

Chairman said eradication of corruption is our national responsibility. Top most priority of NAB is to conclude mega corruption cases as early as possible. Looted national wealth should be recovered from the corrupt and proclaimed offenders by dragging them into the dock. The recovered amount would help completing incomplete projects. The strategy adopted by Justice(r) Javed to curb corruption has already been admitted as most effective strategy to fight corruption.Justice(r) Javed encourages hardworking officers and also discouraged incompetent officers.