NAB hands over Rs224m to Sindh chief secretary

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal on Monday handed over Rs224.071 million to Sindh Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah after recovering from illegal award of contracts in installation of solar street lights under the Roshan Sindh program.

Earlier, NAB had already handed over land amounting to Rs11.66 billion in fake bank account scam cases. The NAB decided that the prosecution and operation divisions would pursue high profile 1,235 corruption cases pending in the courts after collecting evidence, verifying documents and in the light of witnesses’ statements.

A high-level meeting chaired by NAB Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal (retd) was attended by NAB’s Deputy Chairman Hussain Asghar, Prosecutor General Accountability Syed Asghar Haider, director general Operations Zahir Shah while DGs of all bureaus attended the meeting via video link. The meeting reviewed the overall performance of the NAB and expressed satisfaction over it. The meeting reviewed pending cases and decided that the prosecution and operation divisions would pursue the cases in coordination after collecting evidence, verifying documents and in the light of witnesses’ statements. The meeting also reviewed improvement in standard of conducting complaint verifications, inquiries and investigations. The meeting decided to further improve the functioning of Forensic Science Laboratory. It was decided to impart on the job short courses for capacity-building of investigation officers and prosecutors to enable them to meet modern day requirements as per law.

The NAB chairman directed to utilise all available resources for concluding the mega corruption white collar cases on scientific basis so that the corrupt elements could be punished. He directed that the complaint verifications, inquiries and investigations should be taken to logical conclusion by taking benefit of collective wisdom of Combined Investigation Team (CIT).

The NAB chairman said right now 1,230 corruption references are pending in different accountability courts of the country. He directed the relevant DGs to ensure that the cases should be pursued in an effective way and make possible the recovery of looted money from corrupt events and subsequently deposit in the national exchequer.