ISLAMABAD, April 19: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafiez on Monday admitted that the bureau had so far been unable to bring to book 'wanted people' sitting in parliament or settled abroad.
Speaking at a press conference held here in connection with the forthcoming three-day international conference on UN Convention Against Corruption, the NAB chief said due to a lack of cooperation from the international community and an effective legal framework these people were still out of the reach of the NAB.
He expressed the hope that the bureau would get more powers and improve its performance once the UN convention was ratified. "This ratification would help us in bringing looters and looted money back to the country as per conventions' obligations," he added.
The conference is being held in Islamabad from April 20. Representatives from 40 countries, including the United States, UK, Germany, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Switzerland are likely to participate in the event. Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali will inaugurate the conference.
"We are still in the process of learning and with the cooperation of signatory countries we would overcome our weaknesses and flaws in our working," he said. The NAB chief said ratification of the UN convention would be sent to the government so that it could be incorporated into the NAB Ordinance.
Clad in civilian dress, Lt-Gen Hafiez said the NAB was fully aware of the fact that some sitting parliamentarians were involved in corruption. "With enhanced powers the NAB would be able to stop such people from entering the law-making institutions," he added.
The NAB chief said Pakistan being one of the signatories to the convention held on Dec 10, 2003, in Mexico, was deliberating the details of the document for ratification. Efforts against corruption, he added, had often taken investigators to places where either the looted money was stashed or absconders found refuge.
"Operations in these jurisdictions have often remained futile due to our own deficiencies in terms of capacity and absence of a requisite institutional and legal framework," he said.
Lt-Gen Hafiez expressed the hope that extradition treaties with countries where plunderers had obtained asylum and stashed their ill-gotten wealth would be signed after the conference. He said Pakistan had so far signed bilateral extradition agreements with 26 countries, while more such treaties would be signed after the ratification of the convention's document.
"This would make our task of bringing back looters and looted money relatively easy," he added.ter ratification of the convention it would become increasingly difficult for foreign companies to bribe officials in Pakistan, he said and added that one of the clauses called for termination of a contract on proof of bribery.
Therefore, companies would not only be facing criminal or civil proceedings over bribery but would also fail to retain a profitable business, he added. Giving details about the objectives of the conference, he said in view of NAB's contribution to the negotiations of the convention and the potential benefit for Pakistan, the bureau undertook the initiative of holding the event after the approval of the prime minister.
Foreign and local officials belonging to anti-corruption agencies or similar organizations, anti-corruption officials and officials of international agencies involved in the effort would attend the conference, he added.
The main objective of the conference was to identify issues that would facilitate or hamper Pakistan's decision to ratify. These might include issues involving legislation, institution- building and most significantly capacity-building, he added.
In some cases there might be financial implications and there would also be fears about sovereignty. All these matters would be discussed in the conference, the NAB chairman said.