ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday said that it will proceed against complainants who lodge frivolous complaints with any motivation beyond law or loaded interests or with intent to cause malice to others.
In a statement, the accountability watchdog said, “It would encourage genuine complainants who lodge complaints on the basis of evidence that ex-facie suggests commission of offences of corruption and corrupt practice.”
It further stated that according to NAB’s operational methodology, a verification of complaint is conducted to ascertain genuineness and veracity of the contents of complaint by calling complainant who submits an affidavit to that effect. “Also, complaint verification (CV) is a mechanism provided by NAB’s methodology to ward off malicious and frivolous complaints by way of preliminary scrutiny so that prior to the inquiry it is ascertained that it would cause no undue harm to the alleged.”
The statement said that subsequent to the two-month process of CV, an inquiry is authorised if the complaint is found out to be genuine and worthy of probing it further and the inquiry process is completed in four months in which it is ascertained whether or not the case is made out for proceeding it further for prosecution.
“If it is found worthy of proceeding ahead, an inquiry is upgraded and authorised as an investigation, which is also completed in four months. The investigation is further consolidated for the filing of reference.”
The NAB statement further said that fake complainants lodging frivolous complaints against individuals would be dealt with according to law.