NAB actions nothing to do with next elections: chairman

Justice Javed says common practice to verify corruption-related complaints

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Thursday said the bureau’s actions against corruption and corrupt practices had nothing to do with the general elections.

“NAB’s top priority is to bring looted public money back by taking action against corrupt elements,” Justice Iqbal said while addressing a ceremony at NAB headquarters where some Rs110 million of recovered public money was distributed among 809 affected citizens.

“The bureau does not work on the basis of election timings in the country,” he added.

He reiterated that within NAB it’s a common practice to verify a corruption-related complaint upon its receipt and in case of insufficient evidence the bureau closes the inquiry and by doing so it does not discriminate among the accused.

“We do not believe in taking revenge from anyone. Our actions are purely based on law,” he said, adding the bureau believes in across-the-board accountability irrespective of the status or the position of an accused.

He said NAB was focusing on returning looted public money through fake housing schemes, mudarba and banking frauds and scams back to affected citizens.

Thursday’s ceremony was arranged by NAB Rawalpindi. The NAB chairman said in the recent past similar ceremonies were held at NAB Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi and added that the bureau had returned billion of rupees to Pakistanis affected by such scams.

NAB Deputy Chairman, prosecutor general accountability, DG Rawalpindi and other senior officers of NAB were also present on the occasion.

The NAB chairman informed the gathering that so far the bureau had distributed Rs296 billion among different departments and affected residents after recovering the same from corrupt elements.

He said NAB was firmly sticking to the policy of ‘accountability for all’.

The chairman soon after assumption of the responsibilities of NAB had ordered apprehending corrupt elements, proclaimed offenders and absconders.

So far 226 accused have been arrested and some 217 corruption references have been filed in accountability courts.

He said special teams were constituted to nab corrupt persons and in the last seven months NAB had arrested 25 proclaimed offenders and absconders who were avoiding courts.

The NAB chairman said he intends to convene a meeting of the officials of the CDA, RDA, ICT, LDA, PDA, QDA and KDA officers to chalk out a joint strategy to take action against fake housing societies.