Attempts made in past to politicise NAB: chairman

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Lt Gen (R) Nazir Ahmed said that comprehensive efforts were being made to bring further reforms and improvements in the NAB so that its mission to eliminate corruption and redress peoples’ grievances could be carried out more effectively and efficiently.

Addressing the cheque distribution ceremony among affectees of four housing societies here on Monday, he said it was NAB’s responsibility to hand over the recovered amounts to the affectees in a transparent manner. The Chairman said NAB’s Lahore region had contributed significantly in the efforts against corruption, as it made possible the recoveries of billions of rupees in various housing sector, forex trading and other scams and returned the money to the affectees.

NAB chairman said NAB had made direct recoveries of 54 billion rupees and indirect recoveries of 200 billion rupees while direct recoveries of about 100 billion rupees were made possible by the NAB during last 15 to 20 years. He said in the past, attempts were made to politicise the NAB by using it as a tool for political engineering due to which the NAB had to face severe criticism but now reforms were being introduced in the bureau to overcome the anomalies or issues for reviving its reputation and taking elaborative actions against corruption.

He said NAB had done brilliant work to improve country’s corruption index at global level however during past few years the international corruption indexes had shown a decline in Pakistan’s position in efforts and parameters against corruption. The Chairman said that victim driven policy was being adopted by NAB to resolve issues faced by the people pertaining to dealing with NAB officials and corruption scams, adding that in this regard, monthly ‘Katcheri’ or ‘Bethak’ system would be introduced from Lahore region that first to be held on Friday last week of June, where the NAB officers would listen the grievances of the people and suggest measures for their resolution.

He said NAB was genuinely apolitical as it only aimed to work against corruption and corrupt elements, which would remain continue until the complete elimination of corruption. Action against corruption, white collar crimes and others were among top priorities of the NAB, he said and added that corruption scandals occurred frequently despite of taking action against corruption so it was also NAB’s fundamental duty to amend or upgrade the existing laws pertaining to corruption and corrupt practices.

Existing laws regarding corruption were being reviewed, and if needed, amendments would be made soon for effectively creating business friendly atmosphere, he asserted. The Chairman said NAB believes in less projection but more results to facilitate the people as early as possible, adding that investment of traders, businessmen, investors and people would be protected at any cost.

He said a mechanism was being evolved by NAB after which the matters would not be limited to buyer or developer but a regulator would also emerge to avoid fraud or corruption in housing schemes’ sector. On the occasion, he also directed the NAB officials to conclude the cases within months not years so that people could get justice at the earliest, adding that not the negative propaganda but constructive criticism, would always be welcomed for betterment of the NAB.

Earlier, the Chairman NAB handed over cheques among affectees of four housing societies. IGP Dr Usman Anwar was present. A plea bargain of 16.60 billion rupees was made by NAB Lahore in four different cases, out of which the payment of four billion rupees was started from (June 12) which would be completed in the next 15 days.

In the Eden housing scandal, 3.60 billion rupees were handed over as the first installment among 11,880 victims. In the Homeland Real Estate and Builders Case, NAB Lahore recovered 39.6 million rupees from the accused, of which 290 million rupees were returned to 67 victims.

In the Rahman City case, 124 registries worth 112 million were given to the victims, while 33.3 million rupees were handed over to the land owners. In the Punjab Highway Department case, NAB Lahore recovered Rs 43.2 million rupees from the accused. However, NAB Lahore handed over a final cheque of eight million rupees to Chief Secretary Punjab after recovering the full amount.