Pakistan corruption ranking decreased from 175 to 117 after NAB ‘efforts’: Javed Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said the NAB efforts have resulted decrease in Pakistan ranking on Corruption Perception Index from 175 to 117.

Pakistan is the only country whose corruption perception index is persistently on declining trend, he said while chairing a meeting today.

The NAB chairman described bribery and corruption as poison, saying “We must put it down with an iron hand.”

“Father of nation Quaid-e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had also termed bribery and corruption as one of the biggest curses,” he added.

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Iqbal said NAB was committed to corruption free Pakistan and would recover looted money from corrupt persons and bring them to justice as per law.

He said the Bureau has chalked out a comprehensive operational methodology for proceeding of cases complaint verification, inquiry and investigation.

The Chairman said to close possibility of any single NAB officer/official influencing discharge of official business, the concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” (CIT) has been introduced where two investigation officers and a legal consultant are working as a team for a fair, transparent and unbiased, inquiry/ investigation.

NAB had been unanimously elected as Chairman of SAARC Anti Corruption Forum which is the great achievement.

Justice Javed said NAB has apprehended various corrupt and presented them before the respective Accountability Courts as per law.

He said NAB with improved infrastructure and rationalized workload, timelines has been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases.

The annual Corruption Perceptions Index, released by Transparency International (TI) in February this year ranked Pakistan 117 out of 180 countries.

According to report, more than two-thirds of the world’s nations have high levels of corruption.

The global watchdog list showed Pakistan was improving score on corruption perception index, having 30 points in 2015, 29 in 2014, 28 in 2013 and 27 in 2012.