ISLAMABAD - After the Supreme Court’s short order regarding removal of four director-generals of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the bureau on Friday transferred three DGs and posted them to the vacant positions.
According to the notification, Major (retired) Shahzad Saleem, DG (Operations) NAB Khyber Paktunkhawa (KP) was transferred and posted as DG (Operations) NAB Lahore, Brig (retired) Farooq Naser Awan DG NAB (Multan) has been transferred and posted as the DG NAB KP.
Similarly, Abdul Hafeez Director NAB Multan will look after the work of DG Multan until further orders.
According to sources, the NAB has not issued notification for formal removal of the four DGs from their services because it has yet to receive the Supreme Court short order.
They said that the NAB would issue the notification of removal of the DGs as it gets the orders of the SC.
Sources said that the senior officers of the NAB had started the lobbying for getting the vacant posts.
They said that the NAB chairman tasked the newly-appointed the DGs to speed up the pending cases and submit their reports to the NAB Headquarters in this regard.
The NAB chairman asked the new DG NAB Lahore to expedite the pending cases and take action against accused in the main cases without any discrimination.
Several high-profile corruption cases included prime minister, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former premier Chaudhary Shujaat Husain and members of parliament of the PML-N are pending in Lahore bureau for the last 17 years.
Major (retired) Shahzad Saleem has referred several high-profile corruption cases to the NAB Headquarters further action during his tenure as DG NAB KP.
Later, chairman NAB while chairing a high level meeting on Friday said that corruption was root cause of all evils.
He said that the NAB was committed to eradicating corruption with an iron hand with the realisation that eradication of corruption is our national duty.
The NAB chairman said that the NAB had devised proactive Anti-Corruption Strategy especially operational methodology by setting three stages for proceeding of cases complaint verification, inquiry and investigation.
He said that the figures of complaints, inquiries and investigations were almost double as compared to the same period of 2015 to 2016.
The NAB chairman said that the comparative figures for the latest two and a half years were indicative of the hard work being put in by all ranks of the NAB staff in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption was being taken as a national duty. He further said that increase in the number of complaints also reflected enhanced public trust in the NAB.
The PILDAT in its report supports the position stated above as 42 per cent people trusted the NAB against 30 per cent for police and 29 per cent for government officials.
The recent report of the Transparency International also rated Pakistan in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 126 to 117.
He claimed that Pakistan was a role model for the Saarc-member countries in eradication of corruption.