NAB Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bukhari said on Sunday that NAB intended to strengthen the regulatory and accountability system in the country.
He also deliberated that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was contemplating broadening its scope down to district level and revamping of the regulatory mechanism of the country from grass root level which has been begetting corruption and corrupt practices in national institutions.
“The bureau is promoting a culture of resilience through awareness activities and efforts of character building of the future generation with the help of educational institutions across the country”, he said.
Fasih Bukhari announced that the prime minister had been approached and advised to put NAB under his control through the cabinet division.
“This would be the first step towards NAB’s autonomy. Besides, this would enable the bureau to reach to the district level much faster,” he added.
Fasih Bukhari said that the real role of NAB regarding scrutiny of candidates would begin after the elections as it would be much easier for the bureau to investigate the details of the 728 elected public representatives in national and provincial assemblies.
“The bureau would report to the ECP if anything fishy is found in the details submitted by the candidates in their nomination papers,” he said.
He said when he assumed the charge of NAB chairman, the institution was on the verge of closure.
“This is something which was also disclosed by the then prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani,” he said.
He said NAB’s mandate was not only to recover the money from the corrupt ones, but also had the responsibility to revitalise the regulatory mechanism of the country and suggest measures to rebuild organisations and make them responsible to the such an extent that corruption could be prevented at the initial stages.
Replying to another question, he said that the existing NAB was different from the bureaus of the previous tenures that had been used as a political tool by the incumbent administration and was focusing on the prevention and strengthening of the regulatory mechanism in the country.
