ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) has joined hands with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its campaign against corruption.

An agreement has been reached between the two organisations according to which the NHA would help run the NAB drive against corruption on roads. NHA Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar and NAB director-general (awareness and prevention) Aliya Rashid signed the agreement.

The NHA would prepare brochures and flyers to be distributed among motorists, vehicles owners and drivers along with the toll tokens and tickets at toll plazas on the Lahore-Islamabad and Peshawar-Islamabad motorways. Later, the campaign would be extended to other motorways and highways in the country, NHA spokesman Kashif Zaman told Dawn.

The authority would display on toll plazas large signboards reading ‘NHA Says No to Corruption’ and add the slogan to its advertisements for newspapers and TV channels.

Mr Tarar said at the agreement signing meeting that the elimination of corruption was imperative for attaining progress and joint efforts were required to root out the social evil from society. He informed the NAB official that a reform process had been initiated in the NHA, adding that the procedure for awarding work contracts had been streamlined and powers de-centralised with multiple layers of checks and balances. He claimed that by virtue of these reforms substantial amounts of funds had been saved in various projects.

Ms Rashid underscored the need for concerted efforts in creating awareness against the menace of corruption.

It was decided at the meeting that a seminar would be held on the importance of transparency in national projects.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2016