Daunting task: Joint efforts stressed to weed out corruption from society

Intelligentsia, academia, media urged to sensitise people on impacts of corruption

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday called for joint efforts to eradicate corruption from the society which, according to them, triggers a chain reaction leading to injustice and mistrust.

They emphasized the role of the country’s top anti-graft body in curbing the menace.

“Corruption has rightly been labeled as the mother of all ills. It gives birth to multifarious problems including nepotism and favoritism, negates meritocracy, transparency and accountability,” Prime Minister’s adviser on law and justice Barrister Zafarullah Khan said.

The seminar was organized by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at the National Library.

Khan said NAB’s role was very important in the eradication of corruption from the country.

He said that Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his address to the Constituent Assembly had described corruption as a “poison” which needed to be put down with an iron hand.

The bureau’s acting chairman Imtiaz Tajwar said that NAB was committed to eradicating corruption by adopting zero tolerance policy. He said that NAB’s operational methodology had set three stages for the proceeding of cases — complaint verification, inquiry, and investigation.

He said that starting with the year 2014 which can be called basically a year of re-invigoration we have moved with new zeal.

Through detailed introspection and analysis of organizational weaknesses, the overhaul of procedures and business processes, all pillars of the organization i.e. operations, prosecution, human resource development and awareness and prevention have been reactivated. Organogram was revisited to transform NAB into a lean, efficient, and responsive organization.

Tajwar said that to discourage the possibility of any NAB official influencing the discharge of official business, the concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” was introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working as a team to ensure a fair, transparent and unbiased, inquiry/ investigations.

To ensure objectivity and standardization across the board, the SOPs were examined for upgradation and implementation.

They have been placed on NAB’s website for convenience of all individuals interacting with the bureau.

He said NAB has recovered Rs274 billion since its inception.

He said that since youth are the future of the country,  NAB has laid special emphases on them and established 10,000 character building societies in universities and colleges across the country.

The National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) is being upgraded in collaboration with Planning Commission to cater to the present day requirements. It is encouraging for NAB that for the first time corruption has been made a part of development agenda.

The PC has devoted a chapter to issues of corruption in the 11th five-year plan and we intend to work closely with the commission to achieve the goals set in the plan.

He urged all segments of society to sensitize the people about the impact of corruption on society and economy and to join hands with NAB in its campaign against corruption.

Earlier, Director-General Zahir Shah highlighted the performance of the Rawalpindi bureau.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.