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Pakistan's top anti-corruption organisation, - National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered Pakistan rupees (PKR) 2.3 trillion besides accruing over USD 10 billion in savings to the national exchequer, ARY News reported quoting NAB chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed on Sunday.
Ahmed reiterated that NAB will ensure that every act of corruption is met with consequences and asserted that curbing corruption requires a collective effort from all stakeholders. He said no single institution can accomplish this task alone and asserted that the documentation of the economy will undoubtedly benefit the country and significantly reduce corruption. The Pakistan-based media outlet reported that the prominent economist and Director General of the NUST Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS) Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan and country representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Pakistan Jermey Milsom attended the event as guest speakers. Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan, in his keynote speech, emphasised that incentivizing the tax system will yield more benefits than punitive measures, ARY News reported. He mentioned that individuals in the informal/unregistered economy often experience poverty due to a lack of access to banking incentives, including loans. In recent years, Pakistan's economy has seen record inflation, soaring commodity prices, and significant declines in foreign investment and remittances. Pakistan is a country with weak institutions, which is the biggest single cause of corruption. Other reasons for corruption are: insufficient political will to eradicate corruption from society; bureaucracy is the principal authority for the administration of institutes; salaries in the public sector are very low as compared to other sectors of the economy; and a higher rate of inflation. The government bodies are held responsible for spreading corruption in Pakistan because these bodies control and allocate the public resources of the country. Corruption has spread to all levels of government, including federal, provincial, and local. According to the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Pakistan scored 27. The highest-scoring country received 90, the lowest-scoring country 12, and the average score was 43. Pakistan is ranked 139th out of 174 countries. (ANI)
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