Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: “Corruption is the mother of all evils which undermines development and deprives people from their due rights,” National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice Javed Iqabl said on Friday.

According to the statement, he said, “Corruption is one of the major hurdles in the way of prosperity and progress of the country. Considering these facts, NAB was established in 1999 as Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption organisation which is assigned with the responsibility of elimination of corruption and corrupt practices and recovers looted money from the corrupt and deposit it into national exchequer.”

NAB operates under the National Accountability Ordinance-1999 which is extended to whole of Pakistan including Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Gilgit Baltistan.

NAB has headquarters in Islamabad and had five regional bureaus located in Lahore, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Karachi and Rawalpindi/Islamabad. NAB since its inception has recovered over Rs 297 billion from the corrupt and deposited in the national exchequer which is record achievement by any anti-corruption organisation. Moreover, NAB’s conviction ratio is approximately 77 percent and NAB is the only organisation in Pakistan which has exemplary conviction ratio.

Eradication of corruption is the top most priority of NAB and all steps are being taken to root out corruption with iron hands. NAB is absolutely committed to eradicate corruption by adopting an Accountability for All policy.

NAB under the leadership of NAB Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal during the last one year from October 2017 to October 2018 has received 44,315 complaints, authorised 1,713 complaint verifications, 877 inquiries and 227 investigations, arrested 503 accused persons and recovered Rs 2,580 million from corrupt elements and deposited in the national exchequer. The recovery made possible to return to hundreds of affectees and some govt departments. NAB has convened various executive board meetings in which various important decisions were taken. NAB has filed 440 corruption references in various accountability courts as per law during last one year.

Being apex anti-corruption organisation, today NAB is a role model institution among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries and its performance has appreciated by all reputed national and international organisations like the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development & Transparency, Mishal Pakistan, Transparency International and World Economic Forum.

The implementation of enforcement measures and prosecution matters are being monitored in NAB through daily, weekly and monthly reports and inspections. Besides, NAB has established its first Forensic Science Laboratory in NAB Rawalpindi which has facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis.

NAB has also devised a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in order to further improve the performance of NAB Headquarters and all regional bureaus. NAB had organised SAARC seminar in Islamabad 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 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China for cooperation in the fields of anti-corruption. In the context of China Pakistan Economic Corridor, this cooperation will boost confidence in projects undertaken as a signing of MOU between Pakistan and China is specially significant in the backdrop of increasing economic and trade cooperation between Pakistan and China with the resolve by both the governments to work in a fair, impartial and corruption free environment in order to share their experiences to eradicate corruption. NAB has devised a state of the art Monitoring & Evaluation System which had introduced in order to measure the effectiveness of performance of all regional bureaus of NAB which will help in enhancing the overall performance of operational, prosecution, monitoring and evaluation divisions of NAB.

NAB had also constituted 60 prevention committees in order to identify/suggest ways and means to plug loopholes and measures for improvement/strengthening regulatory mechanism of federal and provincial governments for transparency, meritocracy, fair play and compliance of relevant laws/rules. NAB’s Prevention Committees contributed exceptionally well and remained successful in plugging loopholes and irregularities in different department due to their meaningful interaction and recommendations.

In the last one year, NAB under the leadership of Javed Iqbal, has become a vibrant and reputable organisation to eradicate corruption with the help of media, civil society and all stakeholders in this regard.

Published in Daily Times, November 17^th 2018.