83 NAB officials found involved in corruption

Bureau passing thru crisis of character 

By Nasir Mahmood

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that was formed to run a drive against corruption and corrupt practices in the national affairs and the bureaucracy is itself passing through the crisis of character among its own rank & file. Daily National Courier has learnt the NAB has initiated disciplinary proceedings against its 83 officers/ officials during the last two and half years, out of which 60 cases have been finalized with 22 major penalties, 34 minor penalties, 11 were under process and 4 exonerated. The Chairman NAB commenting on this situation said that action under NAO against government functionaries on corruption and corrupt practices will be credible only if delinquents within NAB are held accountable. A NAB officer should have impeccable integrity and must maintain service discipline as he makes other accountable. “Disciplinary matters are important for efficiency and effective performance of a system.” He further said that whereas good work in NAB will be appreciated, NAB Bureaus will take stern action against its own officers/ officials by taking the stock of complaints against them and submit regular report to the Headquarter on this account.  The most interesting fact about the NAB is that a case initiated against first victim of General Retd Pervez Musharraf’s government in November 1999 Abdul Shakoor Kalodi was yet not decided and it is still in the court. The NAB had arrested 72-year-old Karachi trader, Kalodi, with allegation of Rs2498.192 million willful bank defaults about sixteen years ago. Later he was released on bail and now he is 88 years old. The case was registered under section 31A of NAO on 14 February 2000 but the matter is still pending in the court.           According to NAB sources, an Internal Accountability Mechanism is now in place within the NAB with a view to weed out elements that for reasons of inefficiency, misconduct, malpractice and violation of laid down SOPs/ Rules bring a bad name to the Organization. The IAM has been devised to improve the quality of output and to strictly deal with instances of high-handedness and unprofessional conduct.