KARACHI, May. 24 (APP): National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has
devised a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to rationalize its
workload, said Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry here on Wednesday.
Chairing a meeting at NAB Karachi office, he said the agency was
also in process to develop a timeline for efficient, effective and
expeditious disposal of cases.
“Under the revised mechanism a maximum limit of 10 months will be
placed for disposal of relevant cases,” he said.
Chaudhry said this will be from complaint verification – to –
inquiry – to – investigation and finally to a reference in the
Accountability Court.
NAB Chief on the occasion reiterated that NAB was committed to an
across the board zero tolerance policy towards corruption.
Chaudhry said NAB fully conscious of its responsibilities towards
the nation has adopted a holistic approach towards the menace of
corruption.
“A multi-pronged strategy comprising awareness, prevention and
enforcement has been adopted,” he said.
He said to create awareness against the ill effects of corruption
among the youth of Pakistan, NAB in collaboration with Higher
Education Commission (HEC) has managed to establish over 42,000
Character Building Societies (CBSs) in universities/colleges scattered
across the country.
The arrangement was said to be made under a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) signed between NAB and HEC, with the motive to
take youth as vanguard in the fight.
NAB aims to reach the target of 50,000 CBSs by the end of current
year and help raise public awareness about the ill effects of
corruption.
Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said NAB has also established its first
Forensic Science Lab (FSL) at its Rawalpindi/Islamabad office.
FSL was said to be equipped with the facilities of digital
forensics, questioned documents and fingerprint analysis and so-forth.
NAB, he mentioned had only recently also hosted the first SAARC
Seminar in Islamabad where the heads of SAARC anti-corruption
authorities agreed to have a joint SAARC Anti Corruption Forum.
“Pakistan was elected as first Chairman of SAARC anti Corruption
Forum,” he said and claimed it was a major achievement both for
the NAB as well as the government.
NAB was said to had also signed an MoU with China to streamline
and structure bilateral cooperation in the fields of anti-corruption.
In particular context of CPEC, he said this cooperation will
further boost confidence on projects undertaken in Pakistan.
Another MoU was said to be signed with Malaysia, for which
details are being worked out.
Chaudhry appreciative of the NAB Karachi’s performance said
it was one of the important regional bureaus of NAB and has played
prominent role in contributing towards the overall performance of the
agency.
He said that in view of the assessed annual performance of last
year based on evaluation under quantified grading system conducted by
Chairman’s Inspection and Monitoring Team (CI&MT) NAB Karachi’s
performance was outstandingly excellent with 88% operational
efficiency.
Earlier, Director General, NAB – Karachi, Mohammad Altaf Bawany
in a detailed presentation said the office, during the current year,
disposed of 2149 complaints.
NAB Karachi was said to had authorized 107 complaints
verifications (CVs), 146 inquiries and 118 investigations.
“We in the current year, upto May 24 also filed 52 corruption
references, arrested 45 accused persons and recovered Rs.
206.069 million which is a record achievement,” said Bawany.
