Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry Tuesday said that the bureau’s anti-corruption strategy had started yielding positive results.

Addressing the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on “Prevention of Corruption and Ensuring Integrity in Sports” at Vienna, Austria, the NAB chairman gave a detailed account of measures taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistan Sports Board to educate, supervise and monitor both players and administrators to curb doping, match fixing, betting and bribery.

According to a statement, he said commercialisation poses threats to integrity of sports. “Being a signatory of Copenhagen declaration and UNESCO Convention on doping in sports, Pakistan, he said, was bound to implement the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code. In 2009 Pakistan adopted WADA code and an anti-doping organisation was formed within the Pakistan Sports Board, he told the world body.

Pakistan, he said, had introduced domestic anti-corruption code as per the International Cricket Council (ICC) guidelines. “Now, a close monitoring and vigilance mechanism has been established to have a close eye on performance and activities of players and associates to stop corruption, he maintained.

The NAB, he said, had devised an internal accountability mechanism (IAM) under which all complaints against NAB employees were scrutinised and investigated by the Inspection and Monitoring Team chairman.

Giving details about the endeavours taken by the bureaus, the chairman said the NAB had established more than 22,000 character building societies (CBS) in universities and colleges across Pakistan to sensitise youth of the country.

In order to implement the anti-corruption drive, NAB, under its awareness campaign is making significant efforts to reach out to the masses through print and electronic media by holding various activities under its countrywide awareness campaign, he added.