Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Syed Jafer Montazeri, Attorney General Islamic Republic of Iran and Ambassador Islamic Republic of Iran, along with a delegation, called on Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

NAB Chairman, while welcoming the delegation, said that corruption was a menace for all developing countries, especially Asian countries which are striving for growth and to maintain economic stability. Last two decades witnessed a global realisation about the harmful effects of corruption on economy, rule of law and running of public and private sector institutions. This widespread feeling compels states to have proper anti-corruption mechanism within their countries for eradication and to avoid harmfulness of corrupt activities.

He explained the working of NAB and overall anti-corruption regime in Pakistan in detail. He said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) being Pakistan’s apex anti-corruption organization has been assigned the responsibility of elimination of corruption through a holistic approach of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement.

He said that NAB had chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS). Under NACS, NAB has adopted Zero Tolerance Policy and proactive approach to curb corruption and corrupt practices from the country. NAB during the last 16 years has received about 324, 313 complaints from individuals and private / public organisations. During this period, NAB completed about 6,507 inquiries, out of which 3252 inquiries matured into formal investigation. NAB’s prime focus is on cases of cheating the public at large by fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, willful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds by government servants etc.

He said that NAB has developed an effective Monitoring and Evaluation System catering to the needs of all concerned and that Pakistan was considered a role model in SAARC countries as it was the only country whose CPI Index has decreased according to Transparency International (TI) report from 126 to 117. Pakistan has become the first Chairman of SAARC Anti Corruption Forum which is a great achievement for NAB as well as for Pakistan.

H.E. Syed Jafer Montazeri, Attorney General, Iran appreciated the performance of NAB. He briefed the meeting about the working of anti-corruption institutions in Iran. In this respect there are three setups dealing with Anti-corruption issues in Iran. There is a National Accountability Bureau, Judicial Anti-Corruption Organization and Public Accounts Committee. They all work to eradicate corruption from the society. He lauded the efforts of NAB Pakistan, appreciating its work output and requested a written report about its mechanism. Both sides agreed to have more frequent contacts and cooperation on issues of mutual interests. At the end, the two delegations exchanged souvenirs at the occasion.