NAB chairman warns officials against inefficiency, dishonesty

Calls on investigation officers to equip themselves with knowledge of relevant laws

HYDERABAD: The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal, has warned the bureau’s officials that he will not tolerate ‘inefficiency’ and ‘dishonesty’ any longer. Addressing the bureau’s officials in Sukkur district on Thursday, he bewailed that a lack of investigation skills has led to a drop in the conviction rates in the NAB’s references.

The chairman also pointed to the complaints about the misbehaviour of the officials with the complainants as well as accused persons. “The people who are a stigma over the NAB, I won’t let them continue their job.”

He said he has received complaints of alleged dishonesty and inefficiency of the officials. “I am not going to take their names or take action against them for now. I think I will give them some time. But if the complaints are repeated, I will take action.”

Giving references of Islam and Ahadis of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he accentuated the need for adopting honesty as an essential standard in the work. “If we believe in the day of judgment, why don’t we believe in earning our livelihood with honesty?”

He said it will be better to starve rather than to look for unfair ways of making money. “After the reasonable increase in your salaries, there is no reason for you to look here and there [for income].”

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The chairman attributed the drop in the conviction rates to the inefficiency of the NAB officials who are responsible for investigating the cases. He deplored that after every two to three months, the accountability courts issue strictures against the officials who appear bereft of the legal know-how.

Iqbal said the investigation officers (IOs) should rather be guiding the courts by giving them references of the previous judgments and relevant laws instead of drawing the strictures. “I will take action if strictures continue to come.”

He said that he always felt sad whenever an accused was acquitted from a reference that was filed on strong footings but lacked commensurate documentary evidence. “Some IOs are such that they don’t even know the ABC of investigation.” The chairman added that not only IOs but case officers, desk officers and the directors were also responsible for loopholes in the references and warned that he will begin to take action from the director level.

Iqbal also tacitly referred to the prevailing police station culture in the NAB’s offices, saying that the officials call people early and keep them waiting for four hours. “You call the people early in the morning and you turn up at the offices at around 2pm. This complaint should be immediately addressed.”

He asked officials to improve their behaviour with the people, reminding them that they are neither police SHOs nor the police station’s culture should exist in the NAB’s offices. “Unnecessarily stringency behaviour, thana culture, abusive language and beating is not the NAB culture. We have even abolished manacling the accused.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2019.