Daily Times

NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry is going to retire after completion of his four years tenure as NAB chairman. I was invited to join him during farewell visit to a regional bureau where he was received very warmly and given guard of honor in recognition of his remarkable four years tenure as NAB chairman. Besides warm welcome, the selection of words to appreciate his valuable contribution in strengthening and rejuvenating NAB from doldrums to a very stable and credible position were also very heartfelt and sincere which start that we feel proud that under the dynamic leadership of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, from 2014 to 2017, NAB has perfected its procedures after taking various initiatives and very actively pursuing the the cause of elimination of corruption and corrupt practices through a holistic approach of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy across the board. The memory of your four-year tenure brings us your patronage and guidance all the time which helped us in further improving the performance of NAB. Under your valuable and excellent leadership which you have demonstrated as NAB chairman in eradication of corruption by burning mid night candles will be written in golden words and we all salute you for performing your national service in a very dignified and respectable manner. Under your leadership, NAB’s proactive anti-corruption strategy acknowledged by national and international reputable organizations and strong leadership can lead the organizations in the right direction to eradicate corruption by all means by adopting zero tolerance policy.

I was very touched with the performance of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry in order to eradicate corruption from the country as corruption is mother of all the evils which undermines development and deprives people from their due rights. Considering these facts, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established as Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption organization which is assigned with the responsibility of elimination of corruption and corrupt practices and recovers looted money from the corrupt and deposits it in national exchequer. I would like to share some details of major initiatives taken by NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry after assuming of his responsibilities as NAB chairman to revamp NAB.

NAB under his supervision, devised a comprehensive and effective National Anti-Corruption Strategy comprising of holistic approach of awareness, prevention and enforcement by adopting zero tolerance policy across the board to eradicate corruption and corrupt practices. NAB operates under the National Accountability Ordinance-1999 which is extended to whole of Pakistan including FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan. NAB has its headquarters in Islamabad and has seven regional bureaus and one sub-office located in Lahore, KP, Baluchistan, Karachi, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Multan, Sukkur and Gilgit-Baltistan. The present management of NAB established two new regional bureaus at Multan, Sukkur and one sub-office in Gilgit-Baltistan in order to address the complaints of people living in far flung areas at their doorsteps about corruption and corrupt practices.

NAB under the leadership of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry starting from the year 2014 which can be called basically a year of reinvigoration of NAB as NAB had moved with new zeal and efforts. Through detailed introspection and analysis of organizational weaknesses, overhaul of procedures and processes, all pillars of the organization i.e. operations, prosecution, human resource development and awareness and prevention have been reactivated. Today, NAB’s operational methodology comprises of complaint verification, inquiry and investigation. The comparative figures from 2014 to 2017 are indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of NAB staff in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB.

NAB with improved infrastructure and rationalized workload, timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of case putting a maximum limit of 10 months- from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to investigation and finally to a reference in Accountability Courts. In order to ensure uniformity and standardization, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for investigation officers (IOs) in vogue were reviewed and revised after a gap of 10 years in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of director, additional director, investigation officer and a senior legal counsel has been put in place. This will not only lend quality to the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings. NAB has established its first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in NAB Rawalpindi which has facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis.

NAB devised a comprehensive quantified grading system in 2014 in order to further improve the performance of NAB headquarters and all regional bureaus. Under quantified grading system, NAB headquarters and regional bureaus are being evaluated for the last three years on annual and midterm basis at a given criteria which has proved very successful and annual and midterm performance of NAB’s regional bureaus is being regularly monitored. Due to which, NAB’s overall performance has much improved today.

On the proposal of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman, Pakistan organized SAARC Seminar in Islamabad in 2015 in which SAARC member countries including India participated and appreciated the anti-corruption Strategy adopted by NAB in curbing corruption as Pakistan is role model for SAARC countries due to its proactive and effective Awareness, prevention and enforcement anti-corruption strategy. Today, NAB is the first Chairman of SAARC countries anti-corruption Forum which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB efforts. NAB has also organized seminar in collaboration with UNODC in Islamabad. The President of Pakistan, Mr. Mamnoon Hussain was the chief guest at the occasion. A large of dignitaries, representatives of civil society and media participated. The President of Pakistan, Mr. Mamnoon Hussain appreciated NAB’s performance under the leadership of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman.

NAB has devised a state of the art Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) which was introduced at NAB headquarters and NAB’s regional bureaus in order to measure the effectiveness of performance which helps in enhancing the operational, monitoring and evaluation capabilities of NAB at NAB headquarter and regional bureaus and the ability to analyze data in qualitative and quantitative terms having warnings and alarms system for violators.

NAB has recruited investigation officers in 2015 and in 2017 under seventh and eight Investigator’s Basic Induction Course (IBIC). The selection was purely on merit and transparently through a very competitive process. To maintain transparency and fair play the selection process was outsourced. The newly recruited Investigation Officers got training at Police Training College Sihala on modern lines. Moreover, UNODC, British Embassy and Australian National Police and US Embassy arranged capacity building training courses for NAB investigation officers/prosecutors. Recently, National Crime Agency (NCA) UK has conducted the first course from Oct 2-6, 2017 in 06 identified fields by experts. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is also in the pipeline between NAB and NCA for cooperation in the anti-corruption work and sharing of training facilities. NAB also intends to establish its own National Anti-Corruption Training Academy on the pattern of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy in Islamabad in order to arrange capacity building trainings of its investigation officers/prosecutors.

NAB has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China in 2016 for cooperation in the fields of anti-corruption. In the context of CPEC this cooperation will boost confidence in projects undertaken as signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and China. Another MoU is proposed to be signed with Malaysia this year. Details are being worked out.

NAB is mandated to carry out awareness and prevention functions against corruption in pursuance of section 33C NAO 1999. In line with its mandate, NAB under the leadership of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry launched country-wide awareness and prevention campaign on “say no to corruption” besides enforcement drive to aware people about the ill effects of corruption. NAB’s Awareness campaign is carried widely for awareness about ill effects of corruption during 2016 which proved very successful. NAB has decided to continue its effective Awareness Campaign on “say no to corruption” in 2017. NAB in order to create Awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth, NAB signed a MoU with HEC in 2015 and has established over 45, 000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) in universities/colleges/schools as youth is considered a vanguard in this fight. NAB has set the target that the number of CBSs should reach at least at 55 thousands in 2017.

As per the report of Transparency International (TI) of 2016, Pakistan’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has improved plus 9 points, adding that Pakistan was considered a role model in South Asian countries in its efforts against corruption. This is a great achievement for Pakistan due to NAB efforts. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in the Pakistan as per Transparency International (TI), report was declining after 2013 due to steps taken by the present management of NAB against the corrupt The PILDAT in its report supported the position stated above as 42% people trusted NAB against 30 % for police and 29 % for government officials. The World Economic Forum according to Global Competitiveness Index rated Pakistan from 126 to 122 this year which is a great achievement for Pakistan due to efforts and measures taken by the present management of NAB to eradicate corruption from the country.

During the tenure of present management of NAB under the leadership NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, the overall conviction ratio in respective accountability courts is about 76 percent which is excellent as compared to any other anti corruption agency. It is hoped that after retirement of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry the proactive efforts made during his tenure to eradicate corruption from the country will be continued with same zeal in the years to come which will further enhance the performance of NAB in order to make Pakistan a corruption free country.

Published in Daily Times, October 8^th 2017.