National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that Pakistan’s improved Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking is a positive indicator, and will further boost our resolve against corruption.
Talking to media persons on Wednesday, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said that Pakistan’s CPI 2015 ranking in the Transparency International (TI) report shows 09 points improvement, i.e. 117 from 126. This shows that NAB’s initiatives are bearing fruit. He declared the improvement a result of the hard work of the employees of the bureau and relevant institutions.
He elaborated that Pakistan has been given an improved position in the CPI as compared to other South Asian countries (SAARC) and added that while Pakistan improved, the ranking of other regional countries remained the same or dropped during the same period.
Responding to a question about the steps and vigour behind this positive development, Qamar Zaman said that corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines development and rule of law. Awareness and prevention of corruption is a challenging task and as Pakistanis it is our moral duty to play an active role for eradication of corruption from the country.
Considering these facts, he said NAB had chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) for the eradication of corruption and corrupt practices, and recovered approximately Rs 265.977 billion since its inception and deposited the amount to the national exchequer, which is a great achievement.
The allocation to NAB for its operational work is Rs 10.111 billion since its inception, which is only 3.7 per cent of the recoveries made by NAB. He said NAB has received 300,009 complaints since its inception and authorised thousands of investigations. As far as corruption references filed in respective Accountability Courts are concerned, NAB has filed 2,451 corruption references since its inception.
The chairman said that the increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trust in NAB. He said that to create awareness against the ill effects of corruption among the youth, NAB in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as over 10,000 Character Building Societies (CBSs) have been established in universities, colleges and schools.
He especially mentioned the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which has been devised to rationalise workload while timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases. A maximum limit of 10 months are taken from complaint verification to inquiry to investigation and finally to a reference in an accountability court.
