The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) organized a seminar at the WAPDA House here on Friday in connection with the International Anti-Corruption Day to promote awareness about ills of corruption.
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry was the chief guest at the seminar, while experts belonging to different walks of life, including Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami, Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal (Retd), Amjad Islam Amjad, religious scholar Sahibzada Muhammad Amanat Rasool, DG of Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab Anwer Rashid, Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Dr Umar Saif and WAPDA Chairman Zafar Mahmood also spoke on the occasion.
Addressing the seminar, the NAB Chairman said that mass awareness was critical to efforts to fight corruption in the country. He said that the NAB was aware of its responsibility and doing its utmost in this regard. He termed the improvement in Pakistan's ranking at Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2014 as an encouraging development, adding that the country has attained this position for the first time in a span of 20 years since the first Index was launched in 1995.
The Chairman of NAB said it was a beginning of a long drawn out journey against corruption. He said the whole nation need to say 'No to Corruption' at individual and collective levels, for in it lays the key to national development. He appreciated WAPDA for holding the anti-corruption seminar and urged other institutions to organize similar events.
In his welcome address, the Chairman of WAPDA said that WAPDA organized the seminar as part of its social corporate responsibility. He said that ills of corruption were manifold and it harmed institutions and society are well-documented. He said that WAPDA was committed to zero-tolerance towards corruption, adding that "we have instituted a multi-layered system of checks and balances in the organisation" that has demonstrated its effectiveness to address the issue of corruption.
Editor Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami said that the Quaid-e-Azam termed corruption and nepotism the biggest problems facing Pakistan in his first speech to the Constituent Assembly in 1947. He said that corruption cannot end unless people were empowered through provision of basic facilities. Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal (Retd) underlined the need of self-accountability and promotion of mass awareness to combat corruption in the society. Poet Amjad Islam Amjad said that all of us would have to become part of the solution. He said that unless "we speak up against injustice and corruption, we will be considered as part of the problem".
Dilating upon productive role of information and communication technology in detecting and minimising corruption, the Chairman of PITB briefed the participants about Citizens' Feedback Model being implemented by the Government of Punjab. The DG of Anti-Corruption Establishment, Punjab, threw light on the efforts his organisation was making to curb corruption in Punjab.
Ms Aliya Rashid, DG (Awareness and Prevention) of NAB, briefed the participants about role, functions and achievements of the NAB. Sahibzada Muhammad Amanat Rasool said that implementation on the value system of Islam could help develop aptitude of people against corruption.