ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established to eradicate corruption from the country and to recover the loot from the corrupt and deposit it in the national exchequer as corruption is a curse which is also the root cause of all ills being faced by Pakistan today and is a major impediment on the road to progress and prosperity. NAB is determined to make Pakistan corruption free with a firm resolve involving all segments of society including civil society and media etc. as NAB strongly believes in accountability for all. This was stated by Justice Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB here Sunday. Chairman NAB said that today NAB has geared up to come up to the expectations of the nation and tried to perfect it’s procedures by devising a proactive anti-corruption strategy to transform NAB into a vibrant organization by adopting a zero tolerance policy against corruption. He said that under the Zero Tolerance Policy, he has directed all NAB’s Regional Bureaus and NAB Headquarters to apprehend culprits, proclaimed offenders and absconders and bring them to justice as per law. He said that he ordered the Chairman Inspection and Monitoring Team to start an annual grading of NAB headquarters and all Regional Bureaus in order to evaluate their performance in qualitative and quantitative terms, so their performance will be judged under the Annual Grading System. He said that NAB Regional Bureaus will not only be informed about their strengths but will also be informed about their deficiencies so that they should overcome their deficiencies, otherwise they wouldn’t know how and where to improve their performance. This system has proved very successful and all Regional Bureaus of NAB are now working with more zeal and fervor, diligently and transparently on merit, and in order to compete with other regional bureaus. This is very healthy competition between the regional bureaus of NAB and even the number one region at the end of the year receives a trophy from the Honorable President of Pakistan at the eve of world on Anti-Corruption Day. He said that NAB is the only Anti-Corruption Organization which has prescribed a fixed ten (10) months to complete their inquiry to investigation and filing of a corruption reference in the respective accountability court. The fixation of filing the reference is yielding positive results. NAB has also established Combined Investigation Team (CIT) which had not only helped improving work standards of inquiry and investigations but also makes sure that nobody could influence it. He said that NAB has established a state of the art forensic laboratory in Islamabad which is helping in strengthening evidence as well as investigations. The major purpose of NAB’s Forensic Science lab is to meet present day needs which also help enduring secrecy and saving time. Published in Daily Times, January 8th 2018.