Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal said after assuming the charge of coveted post, an effective anti-corruption strategy comprising Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement was chalked out to revamp the anti graft watchdog.
Chairing a meeting to review overall performance of NAB at NAB Headquarters, he said NAB’s anti-corruption strategy has proved very successful and started yielding excellent results.
During the meeting, briefing was given on the overall progress of NAB, especially initiatives taken during the present management of NAB.
The meeting was informed that NAB during the present management of NAB has recovered Rs 533 billion directly and indirectly which is considered as record achievement with overall convictions of 66 percent.
NAB’s anti-corruption strategy for eradication of corruption has been acknowledged by national and international organizations like Transparency International, World Economic Forum, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan. It was informed that NAB had been established in 1999 and assigned with the responsibility of eradication of corruption and recovery of looted money from corrupt elements.
Since its inception, NAB has recovered Rs. 814 billion directly and indirectly. Presently, there are 1,273 references under trial in respected accountability courts throughout the court and their total worth is about Rs 1,305 billion.
As per Gilani and Gallup survey, 59 percent people have shown trust in NAB.
The year 2017 was the year of rejuvenation of NAB in which many initiatives were taken on the direction of NAB chairman to pursue corruption cases on merit without any fear and favor under the enforcement strategy, which proved very successful in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Due to this reason, the present management of NAB has decided to continue NAB’s enforcement strategy in 2021. The salient features of NAB enforcement strategy are included. NAB operations start its functioning about an alleged act of corruption & corrupt practices as defined under section 9. The process initiated with verification of the contents of the complaint received and the applicability of the provisions of law.
This process is called complaint verification (CV) wherein the complainant is called for confirming the status and evidence available with him. Once it is determined that the alleged offence falls under NAO and available material justifies for further process, the same is processed for subsequent action.
In the second step, inquiry under section 18 of the NAO is authorized to confirm the committal of offence and collection of evidence to identify the alleged person(s) involved. The record / evidence collection process is supplemented with recording of statements of witnesses and accused persons. This whole process is completed after due deliberations at each level by giving consideration to the role of Combined Investigation Teams (CITs) and in the Regional Executive Board Meetings (RBMs).
