PAC again summons NAB chief
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has again summoned the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman on January 26 to quiz him on the appropriation of accounts as well total recoveries made by the anti-graft body from politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and other entities including the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The highest accountability forum of parliament also directed NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to bring details pertaining to book adjustments, cash recoveries and the total embezzled amount from government treasury and private entities, individuals and banks.
On January 26, the accountability arm of parliament, headed by PML-N leader Rana Tanveer Hussain, would examine the appropriation of accounts for the year 2018-19 and take a briefing on the total recoveries made by the bureau.
The directions have come days after the NAB chairman skipped the PAC meeting despite earlier giving an assurance that he would go home if he failed to satisfy the committee.
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On January 6, NAB claimed before the PAC that Prime Minister Imran Khan had barred the anti-graft chairman from appearing before parliamentary committees.
The reason for his absence was revealed in a letter written by NAB to the secretary of the assembly, stating that PM Imran had approved that “the director general would represent the NAB chairman in his capacity of principal accounting officer, before the parliamentary committees, including the PAC, constitutional and statutory bodies”.
Taking exception to the letter, the PAC chairman had said that he would write a letter to the Cabinet Division to verify NAB's letter, adding that if the rules gave the premier the power to choose the director general as a representative in place of the chairman, only then the committee would accept it.
Tanveer had further noted that the position of the chief justice of Pakistan was different from that of the NAB chairman, saying that the latter should be held accountable.
“If the government does not hold him [NAB chairman] accountable, there will be abuse of law. The money spent by the NAB chairman during his tenure will have to be accounted for,” he maintained after PAC members had boycotted the meeting over the NAB chairman’s absence.
Subsequently, on January 9, it was reported that the bureau took a U-turn by requesting the National Assembly secretary to consider its earlier letter as withdrawn.
It added that the reference made to the prime minister in the earlier letter was “inadvertent” and “accidental”.
On December 8, during his much-talked-about appearance before the PAC, Justice (retd) Javed had categorically said there should not be any doubt that parliament was the supreme institution. He had assured the PAC that he would go home if he failed to satisfy the committee about the appropriation of accounts and the progress report on the recoveries made by the bureau since its inception in an in-camera briefing on January 6.
The NAB chairman’s statement had come after the PAC had questioned him over unauthorised excess expenditure while suggesting him to get it regularised from the National Assembly in a session called for approving “mini-budget”. Otherwise, the amount was recoverable from NAB.
In November last year, the finance ministry had disclosed that NAB had recovered and deposited only Rs6.5 billion in the kitty since its inception, giving a serious blow to the anti-corruption watchdog’s claim of recovering over Rs821 billion.
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Budget Additional Secretary Tanvir Butt had informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that the actual amount that NAB had recovered and deposited in the federal consolidated fund was just Rs6.5 billion.
The finance ministry had told the standing committee that NAB told it that around Rs821.5 billion had been recovered till September 2021, adding that the amount included worth Rs76.9 billion shown as recoveries against voluntary return and plea bargain recoveries.
It added that another amount of Rs121.7 billion was shown as bank loan default recoveries, Rs59.7 billion recoveries under restructuring of loans, Rs16.7 billion worth of recoveries against the PCBL case and Rs45.9 billion in fines imposed by courts.
Of the Rs6.5 billion, the recoveries during the period of PTI government (2018-19 till September 2021) were a mere Rs1.4 billion or 21.5% of the total.
The highest amount recovered since 1999 was during the period of the PML-N government (2031-14 to 2017-18) when NAB had recovered Rs3.93 billion or nearly 61% of the total and deposited it into the kitty.