National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari on Monday said the country could not be purged of corruption unless the system is reformed otherwise all efforts of corruption watchdogs would go in vain.
“Without correcting the system the agencies would be chasing the thieves without being able to stop the growth of thieves that has reached unmanageable proportion today throughout Pakistan right down to local government level,” the NAB chief told reporters.
He said the governance structure in Pakistan has been distracted over the years to allow corrupt practices within the current rules, laws and constitution.
He said as the accountability body of Pakistan, it was incumbent on NAB to advice federal and provincial governments on system to eliminate corrupt practices.
“This activity is more important today and takes priority of enforcement and catching thieves who are numerous for the limited capacity of NAB to cope with,” he remarked, adding that the use of NAB in the past as a tool against political opponents had distracted it from its more important functions and has only given rise to corruption.
He said the bureau was all set to present an immediate and long-term action plan to the new government to strengthen its anti-corruption efforts by adopting preventive methods.
He said NAB was determined to follow the new government’s declared intent of zero tolerance for corruption and full promotion of meritocracy for good governance.
Bokhari said NAB was actively pursuing an expansion plan and has decided to set up three new regions for eradication of corruption and better monitoring of its activities across the country.
He said NAB had released annual report showing that during 2012, it had the registration 7,565 complaints, completed 392 inquiries, filed 95 references, and recovered Rs 25 billion.
End to corruption not viable until system reformed: NAB
