Scrutinising candidates: NAB establishes election cell to assist ECP

Will liaise with SBP, FBR, NADRA to monitor election hopefuls.

LAHORE:

The National Accountability Bureau has established a NAB Election Cell (NEC) at its headquarters and regional bureaus to support the Election Commission of Pakistan to monitor and scrutinise the particulars of the candidates of the general elections.

A letter dated March 15 and available with The Express Tribune stated that in order to conduct the elections in a fair and transparent manner, ECP held a meeting with representatives of the Federal Board of Revenue, State Bank of Pakistan, National Database and Registration Authority and NAB, in which the Commission decided to provide inter-departmental linkage to share data online to scrutinise eligible candidates.

It was decided that all relevant departments would develop their own mechanism to provide up-to-date information to the returning officer efficiently and promptly. NAB has been mandated to provide a list of all convicts, including plea bargain details.

Any cases of loan defaults referred under section 31 C will be reported whether they are at the inquiry, investigation or trial stages or completed through the plea bargain and voluntary return programmes.

The technical committee of the ECP will function under the chairmanship of ECP secretary. The NEC will be formed under the supervision of a senior officer with members from investigation wings designated by the director-general of operations of the NAB headquarters and DGs of the regional bureaus.

DG Awareness and Prevention will supervise the functions of the cells.

The date of activation of these cells will be communicated on a 24-hour notice any time after March 25.

The main NEC will liaison with Nadra , SBP, FBR and others as directed by the ECP and will share the information as desired by the ECP secretary.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2013.