‘NAB to take money laundering, white-collar crimes to their logical end’

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman National Accountability Bureau, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, on Monday said that the NAB is determined to take money laundering, mega corruption and white collar crimes cases to their logical conclusion in a transparent way, so the corrupt elements could be punished in accordance with the law.

The Chairman NAB, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, was chairing a high-level meeting at NAB headquarters to review the overall performance of the bureau. The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman NAB Hussain Asghar, Prosecutor General Accountability Syed Asghar Haider, DG NAB operations Zahir Shah while DGs of regional bureaus attended the meeting via video link.

It reviewed the overall performance of NAB, especially the references being heard in accountability courts. It was decided that the DGs of all regional bureaus, operations and prosecutors would pursue the pending references after collecting concrete evidence and in the light of statements of witnesses. It also decided to activate the forensic laboratory of NAB and train the investigation officers, prosecutors under the supervision of experts.

The chairman directed the Combined Investigation teams (CITs) to logically conclude investigations and inquiries by taking benefits of the senior supervisory officers. He directed reviewing the performance of officers of regional bureaus and NAB headquarters. He said that a total of 1,230 corruption references were still in different accountability courts. “The performance of investigation officers and prosecutors should be improved,” he said.

He said the NAB is making sincere anti-corruption efforts. “The performance of NAB has been lauded by national and international institutions. The increase in registration of complaints reflects people’s confidence in the bureau,” he said. The chairman NAB directed NAB officers to utilize their energies to conclude the investigations as per law. He said the faith of NAB is to achieve the target of corruption-free Pakistan. He directed the officers to strictly pursue zero tolerance policy towards any coercion of any kind against them.