Qamar Zaman leading NAB in befitting manner

By Tahir Khalil & Asim Yasin

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has chalked out a comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), adopting Zero Tolerance Policy and proactive approach to curb corruption and corrupt practices from the country.

The two-year performance of the NAB chairman gets appreciation from critics and that was a reason that the organisations like of Pildat and Transparency International have also appreciated his role to curb corruption and corrupt practices from the country.

Chairman NAB, known as a “clean man” in the bureaucracy during his whole service, and due to his excellent reputation in the bureaucracy he was appointed to head the NAB. The NAB on his directions, has developed an effective Monitoring and Evaluation System.

It has salient features of maintenance of data at each stage including complaint entry, complaint verification, inquiry, investigation, prosecution stage and record preservation of Regional Board Meetings and Executive Board Meetings including case brief, decisions made and list of participants.

In his two years of heading the NAB, the NAB with improved infrastructure and rationalised workload, timelines have been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of case putting a maximum limit of 10 months - from complaint verification to inquiry, to investigation and finally to a reference in Accountability Court.

In order to ensure uniformity and standardisation, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for investigation officers (IOs) in vogue were reviewed and revised after a gap of 10 years in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place.

This will not only lend quality to the work but also ensure that no single individual can influence the proceedings. The implementation of enforcement measures and prosecution matters is being monitored in NAB through daily, weekly and monthly reports and inspections.  

Though some media reports were presenting the opinion of impugned role of Qamar Zaman, the then Additional Secretary, Commerce, in the purchase of land by NICL but it had already been decided by the Supreme Court vide judgment dated May 18 2011 in Cr. P. No. 177-180/2011. The Court recorded: “We have also focused our attention that as to whether it is a case of sheer discrimination as Mr. Qamar Zaman Ch. has not been shown as an accused person. A careful scrutiny of the entire record would reveal that no role whatsoever has been played by Mr. Qamar Zaman Ch. in the negotiation or making any recommendation for the price on which the land in question was purchased. It may not be out of place to mention here that Mr. Qamar Zaman Ch. was merely a Director and therefore, no managerial / material role whatsoever was assigned to him qua the purchase of land in question and factum of discrimination cannot be proved on the basis of bald allegation. It would not be in the interest of justice, fair play and equity to involve Mr. Qamar Zaman Ch. as there is absolutely no iota of evidence available on record connecting him with the commission of alleged offence.”