NAB chief lauds business community for economic development

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal lauded the business community's role in the economic development of the country. He said the cases of income tax, sales tax and under-invoicing of the business community had already been referred to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as per law.

“NAB is making all-out efforts to eradicate corruption. Probing white-collar crimes is very challenging as the crime is committed in one city while property exists somewhere else. But NAB officers are working responsibly considering it as their national duty.” he said in a statement on Monday.

Criticizing fake housing societies, Chairman NAB Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal said the illegal housing societies have plundered the poor by posting alluring ads despite having no land or small piece of land.

He said the NAB has introduced a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) to benefit from the experienced and collective wisdom of its senior supervisory officers. “NAB has prescribed a timeframe of 10 months; for complaint verifications in two months, inquiries in four months and investigations in four months on allegations of corruption and corrupt practices.”

Moreover, he said NAB has established a state of the art Forensic Science Laboratory with the aim to facilitate investigation and prosecution. “Furthermore, NAB has established its own Pakistan Anti-Corruption Training Academy at NAB Headquarters to train and equip investigation officers/prosecutors with modern techniques to probe white collar crimes and vigorously pursue NAB cases in the learned courts.”

Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal said NAB believes in “accountability for all” policy to eradicate corruption by adopting a three-pronged strategy of awareness, prevention and enforcement.