Pat on the back: ‘NAB Karachi recovered Rs18.5b last year’

NAB chief visits port city office on Wednesday

KARACHI: The regional office of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered Rs18.55 billion in various corruption cases during 2015.

This was revealed during the visit of NAB chairperson Qamar Zaman Chaudhry to the organisation's Karachi office on Wednesday where NAB regional chief, Colonel (retd) Sirajul Naeem, gave a detailed briefing to Chaudhry about the regional office's performance in eradicating corruption during the last two years.

During the briefing, NAB director-general (DG) Karachi informed that NAB Karachi disposed of 7,614 complaints during 2015, higher than those disposed of the year before.



In 2015, NAB Karachi, out of 270 complaints verifications (CVs), completed 214 CVs. Out of 407 inquiries, 353 were completed whereas of 240 investigations, 128 were completed on merit, it was revealed. During 2015, NAB Karachi also arrested 174 corrupt persons and filed 101 corruption references.

The NAB chairman said the bureau is Pakistan's apex anti-corruption organisation assigned the responsibility of eliminating corruption and corrupt practices through a holistic approach involving awareness, prevention and enforcement.

Speaking during the visit, Chaudhry said NAB Karachi is one of the most important regional bureaus, and has played a prominent role in contributing towards the overall performance of NAB.

He said in view of the assessed annual performance for 2015, based on an evaluation under the quantified grading system conducted by the chairman's inspection and monitoring team, NAB Karachi's performance has been graded 'outstanding/excellent' with an 88% operational efficiency index which is highly appreciated.

NAB Karachi's 'excellent' performance under the supervision of Colonel (retried) Sirajul Naeem has been the best in the bureau's history, he said. Chaudhry also directed all NAB Karachi officers to work hard to further improve their performance.

The bureau operates under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, which extends to all of Pakistan, including the tribal areas and Gilgit-Baltistan. NAB has its base in Islamabad, and eight regional bureaus in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Sukkur, Multan and Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2016.