ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice Javed Iqbal has said that NAB is absolutely committed to root out corruption with iron hands in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where the fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty.
He said these remarks while addressing NAB officers at NAB Headquarters and said that our Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan had termed “One of the biggest curses… is corruption and bribery. That really is a poison. We must put it down with an iron hand.”
Justice Javed Iqbal said that NAB was established to eradicate corruption in a holistic and integrated manner. This is the backdrop against NAB is striving to accomplish its mission, which is to rid the nation from corruption and corrupt practices. He said that NAB’s operational methodology has set three stages for proceeding of cases complaint verification, enquiry and investigation.
NAB’s officers need to follow a strict Anti-Corruption Strategy by adopting “Accountability for All” policy against the eradication of corruption. He said that the hard work, commitment, transparency and merit being put in by NAB officers are being appreciated by national and international reputed organizations. He said that NAB officers should double their efforts in nabbing corrupt elements and recover from the hard-earned looted money of the innocent citizens of Pakistan.
He said that through detailed introspection and analysis of organizational weaknesses, an overhaul of procedures, and all the pillars of the organization – operations, prosecution, human resource development and awareness and prevention.
He said that to close the possibility of any single NAB officer influencing the discharge of official business, the new concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” (CIT) was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant, financial expert under the supervision of additional director/case and concerned director are working as a team for a fair, transparent and unbiased, inquiry/investigation.
He said that the quality of inquiry and investigation of NAB must improve further due to establishment of NAB’s first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Islamabad which has all facilities of digital forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis which will help is lending quality and solid evidence in the conduct of inquiries and investigations.
He added that NAB has devised a Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) in order to monitor performance and all regional bureaus in the qualitative and quantitative term which has helped improve the organization.
NAB is the only organization with whom China has signed an MoU to oversee projects being undertaken under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
He said that NAB is absolutely committed to nab corrupt elements and has recovered Rs153 billion during the last 26 months and our overall conviction ratio is about 70 per cent in accountability courts.
He added that NAB Ordinance 1999’s preamble emphasizes on the recovery of looted money and due to this reason, NAB has recovered Rs328 billion since its inception. He said that since its inception, NAB had adopted an enforcement-based approach in its fight against corruption.
