Chairman NAB on awareness and prevention strategy: ‘Corruption creates socio-economic turmoil, engulfing whole system’

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of National Accountability Bureau, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, said on Sunday corruption is a technique adopted to bypass the rule of law and that engulfed the whole system into socio-economic turmoil.

Chairman NAB Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal said the NAB’s effective Awareness and Prevention Strategy has started yielding excellent results, which was appreciated by the World Economic Forum in order to make aware people about the ill effects of corruption. “Furthermore, corruption, being the root cause of almost all evils, gives birth to multifarious problems, including nepotism, favoritism and negating meritocracy, transparency and accountability,” he said in a statement on Sunday. The chairman said due to the initiatives taken by the NAB, eradication of corruption has become the voice of the entire nation. “Transparency International Pakistan has also appreciated NAB’s performance whereas the survey conducted by Gilani and Gallop, 59 percent people have shown trust in NAB,” he said.

Justice Iqbal said the NAB has the mandate to carry out awareness activities, including functions against corruption in pursuance of Section-33(C) of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) and under the NAB’s awareness and prevention campaign across the country. The NAB has been engaging different governmental, non-governmental organizations, media, civil society and other segments of society in order to make aware people at large. During 2020, the NAB’s awareness campaign was effectively highlighted by the media without spending any budget. He said due to NAB’s efforts, all ATM machines of all scheduled banks carry NAB’s message “Say No to Corruption” across the country in order to make aware people about the ill effects of corruption.

Javed Iqbal said the NAB and Higher Education Commission (HEC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for creating awareness amongst the students of various universities and colleges. “Due to this collaboration, over 50,000 character building societies have been established in various universities and colleges across the country so that students may be aware about the ill effects of corruption at an early age,” he said. He said the NAB and SNGPL, IESCO, LESCO, GEPCO, FESCO and K-Electric have joined hands to print NAB messages in order to disseminate awareness about the ill effects of corruption. “IESCO and other organisations have started printing the NAB messages on electricity bills and gas bills,” he said.

Justice Javed said the NAB message “Say No to Corruption” is being printed on all government tenders issued for publication in newspapers in Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan. He said the NAB strongly believes in zero tolerance policy against corruption. “Following the excellent feedback received about NAB’s effective and proactive awareness and prevention campaign, NAB has decided to continue its nation-wide awareness and prevention campaign free of cost during 2021 in order to make aware people about the ill effects of corruption,” he said.