ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal vowed to take mega corruption cases to a logical conclusion.
He said this while chairing a meeting during his visit to the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa office. The NAB chief said that the anti-graft body was making sincere and strenuous efforts for eradication of corruption from the country and returning stolen money to the masses.
The NAB chairman also reviewed performance of the KP NAB regional office. The KP Director General NAB, Fayyaz Ahmed Qureshi gave a detailed presentation on the performance of the regional office. During the last 22 months, he said, the NAB had recovered embezzled money worth Rs 71 billion and deposited in the national exchequer.
The Chairman NAB was told in the briefing that NAB had received 10,085 complaints from October 2017. Out of which the bureau had authorised complaint verification of 796. Currently, the complaint verification of 68 was in process. The bureau had authorised 403 inquiries, whereas currently the verification of 143 was being carried out as per law. NAB KP accorded approval for investigations of 98 complaints from October 2017. Currently, verification of 31 investigations were under underway right now. The chairman was told that NAB KP had filed 190 corruption references in various accountability courts of Peshawar from October 2017. From out of 179 references, only 25 cases of mega corruption came under its jurisdiction. The report of taking them into logical conclusion of the mega corruption has also been submitted in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
He said that the KP NAB was an important regional bureau, which played a key role in the overall performance of the accountability organization. He said that the NAB performance negated the impression that NAB KP was not doing any work.
“The NAB is a national institution. And its officers and officials are performing their duties keeping in view the national responsibility in mind,” he added. The NAB chairman clarified that business community had been playing the role of backbone in national development and they had all regard and respect for them. “The NAB has decided not to take cases related to sales tax and income tax,” he added.
The NAB chairman said that cases of sales tax and income tax pending before the bureau have been transferred to FBR. He said that separate desks have also been set up for redressing grievances of the business community at NAB headquarters and regional offices across the country.
The NAB chairman was also briefed about progress of probe on cases of important nature including Bus Rapid Transit Project Peshawar, Billion Tree Tsunami, Malam Jabba Resort and BoK and others.
About the performance, the NAB DG said that the regional bureau has recovered embezzled amount of Rs500 million during the last 22 months and distributed among the affectees. “The bureau also recovered looted money through fake housing schemes in the province and returned back to the affectees,” he added.
He said that the bureau received 10,085 complaints since October 2013 which were properly reviewed under the law. About the references, it said that a total of 796 complaints were approved for proper investigation of which probe in progress on 68 cases.
NAB has decided to increase the capacity of its officers by imparting refresher courses along modern lines. The bureau had also decided to improve its monitoring and evaluation system and pursuing cases in accountability courts more effectively, so that the corrupt could be taken to task. The NAB chairman said that complainants should be kept informed about the status of their complaints. He lauded the performance of NAB KP under Qureshi and hoped that the bureau would continue to work with the same spirit in the future.
