January 18, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 17, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) would take suo motu notice of corruption cases, the bureau’s spokesman said on Tuesday. In a press briefing at the NAB Headquarters, the spokesman said the newly appointed chairman of the NAB Lt-Gen (Retd) Shahid Aziz had devised a new strategy to expedite anti- corruption activities of the NAB.

“Under the new strategy the bureau will not wait for the complaints about corruption case, but it would take suo motu action,” the spokesman said.

The NAB chief had directed the bureau’s officials to be choosy in picking up targets and be quick in taking them to their logical end, the spokesman said.

The spokesman said under the new policy the NAB would become proactive particularly to target areas of established corruption. In this connection the concept of inspection teams, public contact teams at district level and need for enhancement of existing intelligence capability and expansion of awareness and prevention operations should be reviewed.

He said the NAB chairman directed the officials to focus more on current cases, rather than continuing to live with historical backlog, and the regional headquarters of the NAB should review three-year-old cases.

The spokesman said the NAB would also seek help from the Parliament to discuss how performance of the bureau could be improved.

Talking about the performance of the NAB during last quarter, the official said 12 accused had been convicted during last three months and 15 new cases of corruption had been filed with accountability courts.

Those who convicted in the last quarter were: Akbar Ali Abbasi, a manager of SME Bank, Allah Dad Mengal excise and taxation officer, Quetta, Amjad Ali Khan, auditor collectorate of general sales tax Lahore, Faisal Abbasi Awan a businessman in Lahore, Humayun Khan XEN Peshawar, Javed Ahmed Syed chief executive Fidelity Future Management Pvt Ltd, Javaid Bashir director fisheries, Khurram Shahzad, Misri Khan ETO Quetta, Muhammad Nawaz, Noorud Din Baqai PTCL and Saleh Muhammad ETO Quetta.