National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal said on Tuesday that corruption, a serious crime, undermines social and economic norms of societies and inflicts serious damage upon the state.

In his message on the eve of Anti-Corruption Day, the accountability bureau head called for highlighting the devastating impacts of corruption upon socio-economic development and laid stress on creating awareness against it. He said fighting against corruption is a global concern. 

He continued: “Corruption is a social malice that can be seen anywhere and is like a tumour, aggressively spreading in public life. It breeds injustice, which ultimately results in the collapse of a nation and society if not cured.

“Thus, the significance of this day is increasing over time as the general public is getting more and more mindful of its repercussions.

“NAB being the focal agency of Pakistan under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is determined to weed out the corruption.

“However, corruption is a complicated social phenomenon, which cannot be fought by employing a narrow singular approach of enforcement as it would fail to yield any results.

“Similarly, it would be impractical to expect a single agency to do the job on its own without the complete support of society.

“So NAB being the apex anti-corruption agency and mandated to eliminate corruption, corrupt practices, is operating through a three-pronged strategy of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement.”