Corruption renders good governance meaningless: NAB chief

“All efforts towards development are rendered meaningless if the malaise of corruption is not checked timely”

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Friday said unchecked corruption can render good governance meaningless.

“All efforts towards development and good governance are rendered meaningless if the malaise of corruption is not checked timely,” he said in an official statement. He said that corruption is not only a vice in its own right but also “triggers a chain reaction and leads to injustice, mistrust and suspicion.”

“It generates a sense of insecurity which makes people go astray because they start losing faith in the ability and capability of the government and society to ensure their fundamental rights. This is a vicious circle of anxiety, insecurity, hopelessness and desperation.”

He added that NAB is committed to performing its national duty with “absolute objectivity, thorough professionalism, unimpeachable integrity, and without any leanings for a corruption free Pakistan.”

The NAB chairman said the bureau has taken a lead in establishing a path way for effectively combating corruption in the system. “Under the NAB awareness regime, more than twenty thousand ‘character building societies’ (CBS) have been established in universities and colleges all over the country to sensitise future leaders against corruption,” he said.

“In order to implement the anti-corruption drive, NAB, under its awareness campaign is making significant efforts to reach out to the masses through the print and electronic media by holding various activities,” he added.

NAB has also constituted ‘prevention committees’ at the federal and provincial levels to combat corruption and misuse of authority at an early stage, Chaudhry said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2016.