Third meeting of the Cabinet Sub-Committee to review the Existing legal Framework Pertaining to corruption was held under the Chairmanship of Federal Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Dr. Muhammad Farogh Naseem and Advisor to Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms Dr. Ishrat Hussain on Thursday. Previously, Federal Law Minister and Advisor to the Prime Minister were tasked by the Fedral Cabinet to comprehensively review the existing legal framework pertaining to corruption, graft and misuse of public office and present draft recommendations for the consideration of the Cabinet. Officials from the Ministry of Interior, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Board of Revenue(FBR), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan, Police Service of Pakistan and Provincial Corruption Departments and ICT Administration participated in the meeting. The participants of the meeting agreed that there was a need to have a strong and consolidated system in place for times to come. There was also a consensus among the participants that the accountability of the officers and the officials, be carried out to curb corruption and not in cases where the public servants made decisions in good faith and in public interest, to the best of their knowledge. Barrister Dr. Muhammad Farogh Naseem thanked the participants for their valuable time and sought further suggestions to strengthen legal framework to tackle corruption. He also called for the enhancement of expertise of NAB in order to deal with financial crimes. He also said that there was a need to make the process of investigation more effective and hoped that further interactive sessions in this negard would help gather valuable suggestions to strengthen the pre-existing legal frame-work to fight the menace of corruption. There was also a consensus that multiplicity of services such as FIA, NAB, and Provincial Anti Corruption Departments investigating and taking cognizance of the same case be avoided. *****
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