Reforms under way to depoliticise NAB

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed on Monday said that reforms were being introduced to depoliticise the graft buster in order to make it more accessible to the general public and victims.

Speaking at a ceremony to distribute cheques among the victims of a housing scheme scam, the NAB chief announced that his institution would adopt a victim-driven policy to resolve public issues pertaining to dealing with NAB officials and corruption scams.

In this regard, a monthly ‘Katcheri’ or ‘Bethak’ system would be introduced from the Lahore region. The first such event would be held on the first Friday of June, where NAB officers would listen to the grievances of the people and suggest remedy.

“In the past, attempts were made to politicise NAB by using it as a tool for political engineering due to which NAB faced severe criticism. Now, reforms are being introduced to overcome anomalies or issues to revive its reputation,” Ahmed said.

He admitted that in the past few years, Pakistan’s standing in the global corruption index had slipped. However, he assured that NAB would “do brilliant work” to improve Pakistan’s position in the corruption index.

He also said that NAB was genuinely apolitical and its only aim was to work against corruption and corrupt elements. This would remain NAB’s aim until the complete elimination of corruption, he added.

“Action against corruption, white-collar crimes and others are among top priorities of NAB,” Ahmed said, adding that corruption scandals occurred frequently despite action against corruption.

He also stressed the need for amending and upgrading the existing laws pertaining to corruption and corrupt practices in order to effectively create a business-friendly environment in the country.

“We believe in ‘less projection and more results’ to facilitate the people as early as possible,” he continued, maintaining that investment of traders, businessmen, investors and people would be protected at every cost.

Ahmed told the ceremony that NAB had made direct recoveries of Rs54 billion and indirect recoveries of Rs200 billion, adding that the direct recoveries of about Rs100 billion were made during the last 15 to 20 years.

Speaking about fraud or corruption in the housing schemes, the NAB chairman stressed that a mechanism was being evolved, after which these matters would not be limited just to the buyer or developer, but a regulator would also emerge.

The chairman also appreciated the performance of the NAB Lahore team for effectively resolving such cases and recovering the amount from the accused. He announced that the team officials would be given rewards.

He directed the NAB officials to conclude cases within months, and not years, so that the people could get justice as early as possible. He also said that constructive criticism, and not the negative propaganda, would always be welcomed for the betterment of NAB.

Earlier, the NAB chairman handed over cheques among the victims of four housing societies. Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar was also present on the occasion.

The distribution of cheques came after the recovery of Rs16.6 billion by NAB Lahore through plea-bargain deals in four different cases of which, the payment of Rs4 billion began on Monday. The payment process would be completed in 15 days.

Later, Ahmad visited the Jinnah House along with senior NAB officers and condemned the May 9 attack on it. He said that the miscreants should be brought to justice. “Attacks on the martyrs’ monuments are unacceptable,” he said.