NAB conviction rate rose to over 70% in 2018

Graft-buster also recovers record Rs3919.011m during tenure of incumbent chairman

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has deposited record Rs289.991 billion in the national kitty, besides filing 3,488 corruption references in various accountability courts and apprehending 3,813 corruption suspects.

A NAB meeting, chaired by the accountability watchdog’s chairman, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, was told this on Thursday. The meeting was held to review overall performance of NAB.

The members were told that NAB has received 408,431 applications since its inception. It conducted 14,069 complaint verifications, approved 9,400 inquiries and undertook 4,122 investigations. 1,219 corruption references involving Rs895.135 billion are being heard by various accountability courts.

The incumbent chairman, Javed Iqbal, took over on October 11, 2017 and from that date till December 31, 2018, NAB received 54,344 complaints. Out of these complaints, 2,125 were verified, 1,059 inquiries were conducted and 302 investigations were approved.



Since October 2017, NAB has apprehended 561 corruption suspects besides filing 540 corruption references in various accountability courts, the meeting was told. During this period, NAB has also recovered record Rs3919.011 million and deposited it in the national kitty. The conviction ration during 2018 has also been 70.08 per cent which is unmatched when compared to other graft-busters.

Javed Iqbal said eradicating corruption and taking mega corruption cases to their logical conclusion is a priority of NAB. Absconders would be arrested and taken to task as per law, besides recovering the looted money from their possession.



“This would help putting the country on road to progress and in completing development projects.” He directed regional bureaus to file applications in accountability courts for expediting hearings. He also directed prosecutors to pursue graft cases with full preparations.

“NAB is the only institution which has fixed ten-month period to conclude corruption cases besides establishing a forensic lab in Islamabad to help collecting authentic evidence from the corruption suspects,” he added.