NAB hands over Rs224.071m 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 Roshan Sindh program.

Earlier, NAB has already handed over land amounting to Rs11.66 billions 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 (R) 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).

It was decided that proper monitoring of the performance of the NAB headquarters and all regional Bureaus would be ensured on the directives of chairman by ensuring persistent vigilance the required legal assistance could be provided if required.

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.

He said the NAB is a national institution making sincere efforts for eliminating corruption. He said the performance of NAB has been lauded by reputed national and international institutes. “The increase in receipt of complaints as compared to the last year shows enhanced confidence of people in the Bureau,” he added.

He said the NAB officers should utilise their energies on concluding investigations, inquiries on merit in a transparent way. He said the faith of the NAB is corruption-free Pakistan. He directed the NAB officers to ensure implementing zero tolerance policy without caring about any propaganda or pressure as per law. The NAB is a people-friendly institution and all the people visiting it should be dealt with respect and no laxity will be tolerated in this connection, he added.