Fight against corruption top priority: NAB chairman

ISLAMABAD: Chairman of National Accountability Bureau Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said corruption is estimated to cost the world at least $2.6 trillion annually, approximately five percent of the global GDP.

“It is estimated that $1.26 trillion are lost by the developing countries to corruption each year,” he said in a statement on Sunday. Justice (retd) Javed said NAB continues to give high priority to the fight against corruption. “We believe that corruption should be prevented in all its forms and manifestations,” he said. He said the NAB’s commitment to eradicate corruption from the country is across the board as per law.

He said NAB would not spare those who have devoured billions of rupees of innocent Pakistanis. He said the NAB considered the case, not the face behind it and whoever will commit corruption will be brought to justice as per law. “The NAB has no affiliation with any individual, party or organisation but with the country and is performing its duties,” he said. He said that NAB is pursuing a policy of accountability for all. He said eradication of corruption has become the voice of the whole nation as it not only halts the progress of the country but also usurps the rights of deserving people.

The chairman NAB said Pakistan is facing the challenge of corruption which is the root cause of all problems being endured by the country. He said NAB has chalked out a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy comprising awareness, prevention and enforcement under the “Accountability for All” policy. “We are overhauling working procedures in order to make NAB a more credible and reputed organisation to eradicate corruption in all its forms and manifestations,” he said.

The chairman NAB said the bureau has been rejuvenated by implementing his Accountability for All Policy across-the-board under the slogan of “NAB’s Faith-Corruption free Pakistan" and the results have yielded excellent dividends. “Well-Reputed national and international organisations like Transparency International Pakistan, World Economic Forum, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan have not only lauded NAB’s efforts for eradication of corruption but in the Gillani and Gallup surveys about 59 percent people have shown their confidence in NAB,” he said. He said NAB has recovered a staggering sum of Rs533 billion from corrupt elements directly and indirectly from 2018 to 2020 that no one previously had ever been able to accomplish since the establishment of the anti-corruption watchdog in 1999, besides overall recovery of Rs814 billion. NAB has filed 1,273 corruption references in various learned Accountability Courts, which are under adjudication and their approximately worth is 950 billion.