Corruption is curse which is also root cause of all ills being faced by Pakistan today. Corruption is the major impediment in road to progress and prosperity. NAB was established to eradicate corruption from the country, to recover looted from corrupt and deposit it in the national exchequer.
NAB is Pakistan’s apex Anti Corruption Organization having jurisdiction across the country including Gilgit Baltistan and FATA. Chairman NAB Justice Javed Iqbal after assumption of his responsibilities as Chairman NAB devised a proactive Anti-Corruption strategy to transform NAB into a vibrant Organization by adopting zero tolerance policy across the board against corruption and introduced self accountability system in NAB. Under Zero Tolerance Policy, Chairman NAB directed all NAB’s Regional Bureaus to Nab culprits and investigate without caring about their position so that they could be brought to justice on merit in the light of evidence as per law. NAB has received 343,356 complaints till the year 2017 which were processed as per law. NAB has so far filed 2,808 references against the corrupt and recovered record Rs 288 billion and deposited into the national exchequer. No other Anti Corruption Organization in Pakistan has such exemplary performance.
NAB chairman has directed to further improve annual grading system which was devised for evaluation of the annual performance of the officials. The performance of NAB’s Regional Bureaus is being judged under the grading system on annual and Mid Term basis. NAB bureaus are not only being informed about their strengths but also being inform about their deficiencies so that they should overcome their deficiencies, otherwise their evaluation graded low and they received displeasure from the competent authority. This system has proved very successful and all Regional Bureaus of NAB work now more diligently and on merit in order to compete with other Regional Bureaus. This is very healthy competition between the Regional Bureaus of NAB and even the number one region at the end of the year received trophy from Honorable President of Pakistan at the eve of world Anti Corruption Day.
Under the dynamic Leadership of Honorable Mr. Justice Javed Iqbal, NAB has further improved the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation system. Under the system, a unique identification number is being fixed on each complaint on the very first day by every regional bureau and NAB headquarters. The applicants are being informed about their complaints accordingly. This system is called Citizen friendly NAB which is not only to inform the complainant about latest position of their complaint but NAB would ensure transparency in complaint redressal, due to this reason, confidence of people upon NAB is being enhanced. NAB received double applications in 2017 as compared to the same period of 2016.
NAB has fixed ten months period completing inquiry investigations and filing the reference in the relevant court. The fixation of filing reference is yielding positive results. NAB has also established CIT system which had not only helped improving work standards but also makes sure that nobody could influence.
To improve overall workings NAB has also improved standards efficiency
of its manpower. A forensic laboratory has also been established in Islamabad for scrutinizing finger prints etc. The main aim of establishing the laboratory was to meet present day needs. It also helps enduring secrecy. The conviction ratio of NAB is 76 percent.
Chairman NAB has started listening complaint of people on last Thursday of each month. Separate complaint cells have also been established at al regional bureaus. NAB has inked MoU with HEC to enhance awareness against corruption in students of colleges and universities. The campaign is aimed at informing the students about bad effects of corruption in society.
NAB has so far established 45,000 character building societies in various colleges and universities to inform students about corruption.
The societies have helped yielding positive results. The Chairman NAB is determined to make Pakistan Corruption Free with firm resolve involving all segments of society including civil society and media etc as he believes Accountability for All.
Published in Daily Times, December 25th 2017.
