ISLAMABAD: Terming corruption a major challenge for the government, President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday said it was the collective responsibility of all sections of society to discourage corrupt practices and support the government’s efforts against corruption.

He lauded the performance of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for recovering the plundered wealth amounting to Rs323 billion in the year 2020, but urged the anti-graft watchdog to do more to ensure across-the-board accountability in the country.

The president made these remarks during his meeting with NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal, who presented NAB’s annual report for the year 2020 to the president.

The report said that the overall success ratio of prosecution was 66 per cent during 2020.

President Alvi called for more effective measures to eliminate the menace of corruption from society and promote transparency and accountability in the governance system.

Presenting the annual report to the president, which is mandatory according to the NAB Ordinance 1999, the NAB chairman briefed the former on the performance of his organisation which had recovered Rs323bn during 2020. He said NAB received 24,706 complaints and disposed of 30,405, including the under-process complaints from the previous year.

Mr Iqbal said NAB processed 878 complaint verifications, besides conducting 369 inquiries and 175 investigations, and filed 136 references in accountability courts during the year 2020.

The NAB chief said that the overall success ratio of prosecution was 66pc during 2020.

Appreciating the performance of NAB, the president said that the organisation had done a great job by waging a battle against corrupt elements.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2021