NAB committed to making Pakistan corruption-free, says chairman

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is committed to make Pakistan corruption free as the fight against corruption was being taken as a national duty.

It is in the line of NAB Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal’s vision that no one is above the law and NAB’s faith is to make Pakistan corruption-free, by adopting “Accountability for all” policy on the basis of evidence as per the law.

Considering corruption being mother of all evils, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established in 1999 as Pakistan's apex anti-corruption organisation which operates under National Accountability Ordinance-1999 which is extended to whole of Pakistan including Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan. NAB has its Headquarter in Islamabad and it has eight regional offices located at Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Sukkur, Quetta, Peshawar, Karachi and Gilgit Baltistan. NAB under the present leadership of honourable Mr. Justice Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB not only adopted proactive and holistic National Anti-Corruption Strategy of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement but announced ‘Accountability for all’ policy.

During the tenure of honourable Mr Justice Javed Iqbal, NAB had initiated various complaint verifications, inquiries, investigations and filed corruption references. Inquiries on issues including corruption reports in 56 public limited companies of Punjab, 435 offshore companies of Pakistanis in Panama and British Virgin Islands, return of housing societies' plundered money reports, arrest of absconders and proclaimed offenders. Furthermore, the NAB chairman has started listening public complaints on every last Thursday of the month and directed DGs of regional bureaus to listen public complaints related to corruption in their respective regional bureaus. The same order was conveyed to all DGs and they have listened the complaints of citizen at their respective bureaus. The response from citizen was very encouraging and they appreciated the initiative of NAB chairman for opening the doors of NAB for general public.

In his recent talk with media the National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said that the NAB has proved that its actions against corrupt elements are across the board as the NAB does not believe in victimization.

“The prestige and repute of the NAB has improved manifold due to its indiscriminate and visible action against big fish,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. He said the NAB in 2020 recovered Rs321.4829 billion from corrupt elements, which is a record achievement in only one year as compared to other years. He said a whopping Rs790 billion have been deposited in the national exchequer since inception of the bureau, whereas Rs487 billion have been recovered during the last three years, which is a record success. “The NAB has recovered Rs790 billion directly or indirectly from corrupt elements since the bureau’s inception.”

He said the NAB has received 487,964 complaints, authorised 15,930 complaint verifications, 10,041 inquiries and 4,598 investigations since inception, while 3,682 references were filed. “The NAB has conviction ratio of 68.8 per cent,” he said, adding that the NAB has devised a monitoring and evaluation system for prompt disposal of complaint verification, inquiry and investigation to ensure consensus decision-making.

He said the NAB is a people-friendly institution and its performance has been lauded by reputed national and international institutions. The NAB has become a role model for SAARC countries in eradication of corruption as Pakistan has become the first chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum. Pakistan is the only country with whom China has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for eradication of corruption, he said.

The NAB chairman said Pakistan and China are jointly working for ensuring transparency in CPEC projects. He said the NAB has its headquarters in Islamabad and its regional bureaus are located in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, KP, Multan, Sukkur and Gilgit-Baltistan. He said the logical conclusion of mega corruption cases is the top priority of the NAB. It is to be mentioned here that out of 179 mega corruption cases, 63 have been brought to logical conclusion while 95 mega corruption cases are under trial in accountability courts.