NAB’s white-collar crimes conviction hits 70%

Anti-graft watchdog deposited Rs2.5b in national exchequer during 2017

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) conviction ratio of white-collar crimes has touched 70 per cent due to the effective strategies devised by incumbent Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal after assuming charge.

According to official sources, the ratio of complaints registered by NAB doubled during the tenure of the incumbent chairman owing to the 'accountability for all' policy which has so far disregarded status of the suspects when undertaking cases.

The NAB chief so far heard complaints of over 2,500 aggrieved people in open courts held on last Thursday of every month and chaired 20 Executive Board Meetings since assuming duties while according approval to various complaint verification, inquiries and investigation.

The current NAB administration has also filed 440 corruption references after collecting concrete evidence during the last one year. Likewise, the bureau has apprehended 503 accused persons, received 44,315 complaints and conducted 1,713 complaint verifications.

Meanwhile, NAB has also deposited Rs2.5 billion in the national exchequer during the last one year while the anti-corruption watchdog has also deposited over Rs297 billion in the national treasure since its inception. NAB has so far received 394,000 complaints, conducted 13,081 complaint verification, 8,000 inquiries, 4,001 investigations besides filing 3,386 corruption references indifferent accountability courts.



A total of 1,210 references involving corruption of Rs900 billion are under trial in various accountability courts of the country. NAB has constituted over 50,000 character building societies across country in colleges and universities. It has also established 60 Prevention Committees at federal and provincial level, including Capital Development Authority (CDA), Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Press Information Department (PID) provincial education, health, revenue, housing and cooperative departments, for promoting transparency and upholding merit.

Moreover, the NAB chief has ordered inquiries on various complaints in last one year, including investigation against 56 public limited companies in Punjab, 435 offshore companies in British Virgin Islands and recovery of looted money of public from private housing societies.  The bureau has also successfully arrested proclaimed offenders and placed details of illegal housing societies on websites of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and Capital Development Authority (CDA).

According to PILDAT report, NAB enjoys the support of 42 per cent people. Gallup Survey also indicated 59 per cent people have trust upon the accountability bureau.

Similarly, the World Economic Forum and Transparency International have in their reports appropriated NAB's performance as corruption perception index of Pakistan is continuously decreasing due to NAB's efforts.

Besides, NAB has signed an MoU with China to oversee CPEC projects in Pakistan and to enhance cooperation in eradication of corruption.