NAB recovered Rs480b in 10 years, Senate told

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered Rs480 billion in the last 10 years through voluntary plea bargain, loan rescheduling and court fines, the law ministry informed the Senate on Friday.

During the session, chaired by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, the opposition criticised the government’s policy on procurement of the coronavirus vaccine, which led to heated exchanges between the two sides of the isle.

Speaking during the session, Parliamentary Affairs State Minister Ali Mohammad Khan said that NAB made direct recovery of Rs46.38 billion in the last 10 years, while Rs395.48 billion was recovered from other sources.

“NAB has made historic recovery in the last two years,” the state minister told the house. However, Javed Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that “everyone knows how the plea bargain” is done. “When we ask questions [about NAB], ministers insult parliament,” he added.

On a calling attention notice, Mushahid Hussain Sayed raised the issue of teachers protesting for the past 3 weeks. “The government is totally unmoved,” he said. Opposition leader Raja Zafarul Haq also demanded that the government should resolve the teachers’ issues immediately.

Leader of the House Shehzad Waseem said that the government was trying to resolve this matter at the earliest. “The education minister is not present here but as soon as he returns, work will start on this issue,” he added.

Senator Ayesha Raza complained about ambiguity around the government’s Covid vaccine policy. The house was informed that the government had initially placed orders for 500,000 vaccines dozes, which would first be administered to the frontline health workers.

Criticising President Alvi, Abbais said that the president was not a representative of any government or a political party but he was the representative of the state. He added that the decisions were made by parliament and the government affairs could not be run through ordinances.