Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in his message said the purpose of celebrating this day is to sensitize the people along with raising public awareness against the menace of corruption in the society. "Corruption is a societal spite and a dacoity on the public rights which creates discontentment and deprivation in the society. In fact, corruption is the biggest hurdle in the way of development," he added.
Shehbaz said that international image of the country has been improved due to the steps taken for the elimination of corruption and ensuring transparency in the affairs of the government. The PML-N government has ensured transparency in every sector and effective steps have been taken to promote merit and transparency along with the elimination of corruption, he added.
He said that speedy, transparent and qualitative completion of development projects has been ensured while all the recruitments have been made purely on merit in different departments including health, education and police. He said, "It is the need of the hour that coordinated, sustained and effective efforts should be continued to rid the society of the menace of corruption on priority basis."
Director General National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore Shahzad Saleem said that civil Society and media are pivot pillars of the state and with the collaboration of these segments anti corruption campaign could be strengthened. According to him, NAB was taking serious steps to eradicate corruption from society and for this purpose; thousands of character building societies (CBS) have been established at school, college and university level.
While throwing light on plea bargain law, the DG said, "The Bureau is not a laundry for corrupts and plea bargain does not mean 'forgiveness'." Without proof NAB can not satisfy Courts in the cases of plea bargain, whereas, NAB has so far recovered Rs 290 billion from corrupt elements in last 18 years, which has been deposited in government exchequer.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017