HYDERABAD, Jan 18: The director-general of the National Accountability Bureau, Sindh, Maj-Gen Haroon Sikandar Pasha, has said that accountability courts in the city will be reactivated and the chief justice of the Sindh High Court will be requested to appoint judges so that all pending cases could be disposed of speedily.

He was talking to reporters after inaugurating the NAB office on Tuesday morning. He said the NAB had decided to establish its offices in other cities of Sindh in order to carry out prompt inquiries and investigations into corruption cases and provide justice to people.

Mr Pasha said another office would start functioning in Sukkur by the end of this month. Replying to a question about the performance of the NAB Sindh, he said of 105 cases referred to accountability courts, 75 accused had been convicted.

He said of these cases, 70 per cent cases related to civil servants of all cadres while the NAB also conducted inquiries and investigations of politicians including MNAs and MPAs.

He said the NAB Sindh had taken up the cases of corruption right from 1985 and achieved success in many cases. He said despite the fact that seven to eight months were required to investigate and finalize a case, the performance of the NAB Sindh was satisfactory.

Replying to another question, about the investigation of corruption cases in Hyderabad, Mr Pasha said the NAB Sindh had received a majority of cases against the alleged corruption in the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, development work in the district government and Zakat and Ushr committees.

He said the NAB Sindh was also conducting inquiries and investigation into some corruption cases against Nazims right from districts to union councils. He said the NAB was also taking action after thorough probe on news reports and public complaints.

Earlier, inaugurating the office of the NAB Sindh, Mr Pasha said a strong network was being established by the organization in order to provide early relief and justice to people.

He said two wings of the Federal Investigation Agency had been merged into the NAB from Aug 2004 and now the bureau was planning to provide relief and justice to the masses at their door steps. Mr Pasha visited different sections of the NAB Sindh office.

LECTURE: Prof (Dr) Pervez Ahmed Pathan of the University of Sindh has said that Pakistan could meet the challenges of the World Trade Organization regime through concerted efforts of the government and people.

He said Pakistan was rich in natural and human resources and added that these resources needed to be harnessed for the promotion of sustainable development and improvement in efficiency.

He was delivering a lecture on "WTO and its challenges" organized by the Hyderabad press club here on Monday. He stressed the need for cooperation between the research scholars of Pakistani universities and the industrial sector to improve the quality of industrial production.