‘NAB geared up for making corruption-free Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD: NAB Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal (retd) said the anti-graft body is geared up to bring the corrupt elements to justice for eradicating corruption from the country.

“The NAB has perfected its procedures and its officers/officials are working with the realisation that eradication of corruption is their national duty,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

He said the NAB is committed to eradicating corruption by adopting “accountability for all” policy. He said there are about 1130 references under trial in respective accountability courts and their approximately worth is Rs943 billion.

He said the NAB has conducted probe in 56 public limited companies in Punjab, probe in 435 offshore companies, probe in alleged illegal allotment of industrial and commercial plots by Gwadar Industrial and Estate Development Authority, NTS, LNG Terminal, Narowal Sports City Project, Billion-Tree Tsunami, illegal housing/cooperative societies and Modaraba scams etc.

The NAB is a role model for entire Saarc countries, he added. “Pakistan and China are jointly working for ensuring transparency in China-Pakistan economic coordination in CPEC project,” he further added. He said Pakistan and China have inked MoU for eradication of corruption. He said the NAB has established a state- of-the-art training academy on modern lines to train its investigation officers in order to inquire/investigate white collar crime and complex cases more professionally and on the scientific basis. The NAB is determined to eradicate corruption by using all its resources. Justice Javed Iqbal (retd) said the NAB’s proactive anti-corruption strategy has started yielding positive dividends.

Due to its effective anti-corruption strategy, he said the NAB has not only recovered Rs466 billion looted money from corrupt and deposited it in the national exchequer which is a record achievement of any anti-corruption organisation working in Pakistan.

He said the NAB’s conviction ratio is about 68.6 percent. “We have also adopted a policy to arrest proclaimed offenders and absconders to bring them to justice as per law,” he added.

He said due to NAB’s proactive anti-corruption strategy, eradication of corruption has become the voice of the whole nation as corruption-free Pakistan can lead us towards prosperity. He said the NAB’s performance is being evaluated under monitoring and evaluation system.

On the basis of annual evaluation, he said all the NAB’s employees are being informed about their strengths and weaknesses under NAB’s self-accountability mechanism. “They are also being directed to overcome their shortcomings which are helping in improving the overall performance of the NAB,” he said. The chairman said NAB’s effective awareness and prevention campaign is going on countrywide for making people aware of the ill-effects of corruption.