National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal on Wednesday said the anti-graft watchdog is committed to elimination of corruption from Pakistan by strictly implementing the ‘accountability for all’ policy.
Chairing a meeting to review performance of NAB Karachi, he said the bureau has devised an effective anti-corruption strategy for eradication of corruption which has started yielding excellent results. He said NAB has perfected its procedures and has rejuvenated after taking new initiatives. “In order to rationalise the workload, timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months from complaint verification to inquiry, investigation and finally to a reference in the accountability court,” he said. “In order to ensure uniformity and standardization, the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for investigation officers in vogue have been reviewed and revised after a gap of 10 years in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers,” he further said. “A system of CIT comprising of director, additional director, investigation officer and a senior legal counsel has been put in place,” he added.
The chairman said NAB has signed MoU with China to oversee CPEC projects. “We have also signed MoU with the Higher Education Commission in order to make youth aware of ill effects of corruption at an early age,” he said, adding that over 50,000 character building societies have been established in colleges and universities of the country.
The chairman said Transparency International (TI), PILDAT, Mishal, and World Economic Forum also appreciated NAB’s efforts for eradication of corruption. “Gillani and Gallop survey says that 59 percent people have shown trust in NAB,” he said, adding that the bureau has devised a comprehensive quantified grading system in order to further improve the performance of NAB Headquarters and all regional bureaus. “Under the quantified grading system, NAB Headquarters and regional bureaus are being evaluated on annual and midterm basis at a given criteria which proved very successful,” he added.
Justice (r) Javed Iqbal also appreciated the excellent performance of NAB Karachi under the supervision of DG NAB Karachi Brig (r) Farooq Naser Awan.
Earlier, Brig (r) Farooq Naser Awan in his briefing said NAB Karachi from October 11, 2018, to date has filed corruption references against Dr Asim, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Agha Siraj Durrani and Kamran Micheal, which are currently under trial in accountability courts. He informed the meeting that NAB Karachi received 9,887 complaints in 2018-19 and completed/disposed of 346 complaint verifications in 2018-19 to date, adding that 208 inquiries have been completed/disposed of in 2018-19 till October 2019.
The DG said the Karachi bureau filled 65 corruption references in 2018-19 in accountability courts in Karachi whereas 28 corruption references were ready for filling after approval of the chairman.
Brig (r) Awan said 159 accused persons were arrested by NAB Karachi during 2019 and helped in the arrest of 32 accused persons of other regional bureaus of NAB. He said that NAB Karachi recovered Rs 729.669 million in 2017-18 and Rs 3423.222 million in 2018-2019 through plea bargain after approval of accountability courts. The overall conviction ratio of NAB Karachi in accountability courts was about 84 percent, he added.
