January 17, 2002	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 2, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: The National Accountability Bureau has decided to shift its investigations from individuals to institutions to weed out institutionalized menace of corruption.

“The transformation is in line with a deliberate decision taken to target the institutions as running against few individuals would not serve the purpose of purging corruption from society,” said Rear Admiral Obaid Sadiq, the Director-General of Regional Accountability Bureau (RAB), here on Wednesday.

In an informal chat with the reporters at the Rawalpindi RAB office, the director-general said that investigations against different important departments, like Pakistan Railways, National Training Bureau, Tehsil Municipal Administration (old RMC) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) were being finalized and would be sent soon to the NAB chairman for their onward submissions before the courts.

Rear Admiral Obaid Sadiq also dispelled the impression that RAB or NAB commanded influence over the accountability courts or the court’s verdicts were dictated by them, holding out an assurance that the courts were totally independent in their functioning which was evident from the fact that the accountability courts had always facilitated the accused as they were sympathetic towards them.

“It is just a coincidence that three accountability courts and the RAB office are located at the same premises because of the space problem,” he said.

He conceded that NAB had succeeded only once in getting back former Naval chief Mansurul Haq from abroad though the list of wanted people living abroad was long, the extradition process was time-consuming and tedious.

About Admiral Mansurul Haq’s lodging at the Sihala Rest House instead of the Adiala jail where the rest of the accused were staying, he explained that it was necessary due to security reasons. Seeing Admiral Mansur’s state of mind, it was necessary to keep him at a secluded place instead of in the company of others, as he could have divulged sensitive information detrimental to the national security, he said.

When his attention was drawn towards the exile of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif despite the fact that they were wanted in cases, he said that a law without discretion and flexibility was a dead law.

He observed that the punishment or penalties, no matter how stringent they might be, would not end the culture of corruption from society unless the people started looking down upon the corrupt elements. “Unfortunately our social fabric is such that the corruption on the part of the elite is always ignored while every respect is accorded to them,” he said.