ISLAMABAD Sept 10 (TNS): Mr. Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman NAB chaired a meeting to review the overall performance of Prosecution Division of NAB at NAB Headquarter.
During the briefing, Mr. Waqas Qadeer Dar, Prosecutor General Accountability (PGA) NAB informed that Prosecution Division being an important Division of NAB besides providing legal opinion, legal assistance to NAB’s Operations Division and all Regional Bureaus of NAB in conduct of inquiries, investigations as per law and laid down SOPs, pleading cases of NAB in Accountability Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
He said that under the leadership of Mr. Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman NAB, the Prosecution Division has been revamped by inducting experienced and well educated legal consultants/special prosecutors. He said that on the directions of the Chairman NAB, a mechanism of handling of witnesses has been introduced and the result of this intervention is very encouraging.
He said that due to constant deliberations, monitoring and performance analysis of Prosecution Division, the overall conviction ratio is approximately 76 percent which is one of the best conviction ratio due to hard work put in by NAB Prosecution Division under the leadership of Mr. Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman NAB.
Mr. Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chairman NAB said that NAB has received about 3, 43,356 complaints from individuals and private / public organizations. NAB authorized 11,581 complaint verifications, 7587 inquiries, 3846 investigations, filed 2808 corruption references in Accountability Courts and during the tenure of present management of NAB, NAB recovered Rs. 50 billion of ill-gotten money from corrupt which was all deposited in the national exchequer which is a remarkable achievement of NAB.
He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations are almost double as compared to the same period of 2014 to 2017 during the tenure of the present management of NAB. The comparative figures of previous three and half year are indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of NAB officers/officials in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption is being taken as a national duty. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB.
The Chairman NAB said that NAB has established libraries at NAB Headquarter and all Regional Bureaus of NAB in order to facilitate Prosecutors and Investigation Officers in collection of relevant information for expeditious disposal of cases as per laid down rules/laws. He said that NAB has also established an E-Library at NAB Headquarter having more than 50, 000 electronic books related to Law Journals, yearly law reports and monthly law reports etc. NAB plans to have access with Higher Education Commission (HEC) Library which will be beneficial for NAB prosecutors in future.
The Chairman NAB appreciated the professional work done and performance of Prosecution Division under the supervision of Mr. Waqas Qadeer Dar, Prosecutor General Accountability (PGA) NAB and said that starting with the year 2014 which can be called basically a year of re-invigoration of NAB, we have moved with new zeal and effort. Through detailed introspection and analysis of organizational weaknesses, overhauling of procedures and processes, all pillars of the organization i.e. Operations, Prosecution, Human Resource Development and Awareness and Prevention Division have been reactivated.
He said that NAB has devised and implemented an effective Monitoring and Evaluation System (MES) in NAB Headquarters and all Regional Bureaus in order to review their performance in qualitative and quantitative terms which has proved very successful in enhancing the performance of all Divisions of NAB including Regional Bureaus.
He said that NAB is the only Anti Corruption Organization who has prescribed a maximum time limit of 10 months- from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to-investigation and finally to a reference in the Accountability Court for expeditious disposal of all cases including white collar crime cases which is a challenging task but we are committed to beat the clock by putting hard work and ensuring transparency as per law.
