An overview of national corruption watchdog’s performance

LAHORE: Since its inception on November 16, 1999, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has so far recovered only Rs 298.714 billion from individuals and fraudulent financial companies who looted the national exchequer and general public both, although the state funds dished out to this institution during the last 19 years are around Rs 12 billion.

A simple mathematical exercise undertaken by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows that recovery to the tune of Rs 298.714 billion in 19 years means that the national corruption watchdog has only succeeded to retrieve approximately Rs 15.7217 averagely per annum or just Rs 1.31 billion every month from the corrupt elements!

The recovery process is certainly slow and may not be huge in numbers, but the under-fire NAB is probing against one former Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, and Premiers, including the sitting Prime Minister Imran Khan and his predecessors including including Nawaz Sharif, Shaukat Aziz, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

Imran Khan had appeared before the National Accountability Bureau office in Peshawar on August 7, 2018 in the case pertaining to alleged misuse of the provincial government's helicopters during his party's past tenure in Khyber Pakhtoonkwa province. The case is still on and valid.

So far, only one accused (Mian Arshad Butt) has died ion NAB custody at Chamba House Lahore during probe regarding illegal occupation of state land for building a housing colony.

NAB had contended Arshad had suffered heart attack in NAB custody on August 7, 2001. The accused had been awarded seven-day physical remand.

However, on October 9, 2001, the Lahore High Court had summarily dismissed a writ petition seeking registration of a case by police against two officers of the National Accountability Bureau (Colonels Javed Zahoor and Mahmood) for allegedly torturing PPP activist Mian Arshad Butt to death.

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, who was assigned the petition moved by Rais Arshad, son of the deceased, had observed that the petitioner has a legal remedy against the alleged police refusal to register an FIR.

This was one of the key reasons why many media analysts known to Qaiser Ameen Butt had recently raised a voice that since the ailing former MPA Qaiser was on drugs, NAB would have to treat him a little differently by catering to his “needs,” at least till Saad Rafique was apprehended, otherwise the Paragon Housing Society scam would serve as a thorn in flesh for the NAB Lahore authorities---as it did for Lt. General Khalid Maqbool in 2001.

While NAB has already arrested former Federal Minister and a vocal PML-N stalwart, Khawaja Saad Rafique, and his younger brother, Salman Rafique, in Paragon Housing scam recently, it has now summoned former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, and his son, Bilawal Bhutto, on Thursday (today) in Park Lane Estates case—allowing the once disunited PPP and PML-N opposition to lash out vociferously against the Premier Imran Khan-led government and NAB both.

Less than a fortnight ago, Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur had appeared before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with ongoing money laundering case probe. Both were summoned by FIA to record their statements in the case, which pertains to money laundering through fake bank accounts.

On October 31, 2018, the National Accountability Bureau had released a list of 71 politicians, bureaucrats, and public office holders it was then investigating in cases of corruption or misuse of authority.

Apart from having the above-mentioned Pakistani heads of government in the under review NAB list released on October 31 last, other names under the scanner had included both serving and former chief ministers such as Syed Murad Ali Shah, Pervez Khattak, Aslam Khan Raisani, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, Shehbaz Sharif and Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi.

The NAB list of end October 2018 had also included various known and formidable names including the likes of sitting Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar, Sindh MPA Nawab Muhammad Taimur Talpur, DG Sindh Building Control Authority Manzoor Qadir, Senator Osman Saifullah, Principal Secretary to PM Imran Khan, Azam Khan, Special Assistant to PM Imran Khan, Zulfiqar Bokhari, ex-secretary to PM Fawad Hussain Fawad, MQM’s Babar Ghauri, PPP’s Dr Asim Hussain, Agha Siraj Durrani, eminent banker Shaukat Tareen, former Punjab minister Rana Mashood, Hanif Abbasi, Aleem Khan, Ali Arshad Hakeem, Abdullah Yousuf, Salman Siddique, Fawad Hassan Fawad, Ahad Cheema, Ayaz Khan Niazi, Riaz Pirzada, Babar Awan, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Sohail Anwar Sial, Rauf Siddiqi, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Jam Khan Shoro, Ijaz Jakhrani, Liaquat Jatoi, Sibghatullah Rashdi, Siddiq Memon, Ghulam Haider Jamali, Manzoor Wassan, Asma Arab Alamgir and Arab Alamgir Khan, Akram Durrani, Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar, ex-IGP Malik Naveed, Khalid Langu (ex-adviser to CM Balochistan), Mushtaq Raisani, (ex-secretary Finance Balochistan), Asfandyar Kakar, Muhammad Asim Kurd, Mir Shah Jahan Kehtran, Saadat Anwar, Rehmat Baloch.

By August 28, 2018, the National Accountability Bureau was holding inquiries and investigations against hundreds of people including 70 politicians, 121 businessmen and 210 government officers of grade-20 and above, the Senate was told by Law Minister, Farogh Naseem, in response to Senator Ateeq Khan’s query.

Minister Farogh Naseem had told the Upper House of Parliament over three months ago that since 2008, the NAB had decided 4,871 cases including about 3,046 inquiries, 581 investigations and 1,244 references.

The Law Minister, in his written reply, had stated that 856 inquiries are underway against different people and organizations by end August 2018.

These inquiries included 43 against politicians, 67 against businessmen, 136 against top civil servants of grade 20-22 and 610 against other citizens.

By September 7, 2018, this figure pertaining to recovery of ill-gotten money had stood at Rs 296 billion, up from Rs 285 billion by the end of December 2016, when NAB was headed by Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, who had revealed on November 28, 2016 that only Rs 12 billion funds had been allocated to this institution since its creation by the government, which was just above 4 per cent of the recoveries made by it.

By October 31, 2015, the NAB had recovered an amount of Rs264.4biluion and the total amount spent on it had rested at only Rs11.8billion.

Interestingly by June 5, 2014, the National Accountability Bureau officials had received Rs 380 million from the government as their share from the recoveries made by the bureau in 2013.

According to documents, a sum of Rs 380,396,000 was released to the NAB by the Finance Division during the financial year 2013-14 as a supplementary grant as its share in the recoveries.

On July 24, 2017, the-then Chairman National Accountability Bureau, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, had publicly stated that since it was established, the Bureau had received about 3,43,356 complaints from individuals, private and public organizations.

During this period, the NAB had authorized 11,581 complaint verifications, 7587 inquiries, 3846 investigations, filed 2,808 corruption references in respective accountability courts with 76 percent overall conviction ratio.

By July 2017, the NAB had managed to recover an amount of Rs. 287.763 billion from those who had cheated public at large by forming fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, willful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds by politicians, former military officers and government servants etc.

However, under its incumbent Chairman, Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal, NAB has netted around Rs 3.7 billion over the last one year as complaints filed to the bureau and its inquiries have almost doubled in 2018 compared to 2017.

It is noteworthy that on November 7, 2018, the National Accountability Bureau Lahore Office under Director General Shahzad Saleem had returned Rs169.68 million to 1,474 affectees of the Double Shah (sibtul Hassan Shah) scam after recovering the amount from the fraudster.

Overall, the bureau has so far distributed Rs1.2 billion among 6,490 affectees of the scam. Continued from Page 9

By February 2018, NAB had successfully recovered Rs 4 billion out of the Rs 9 billion from Double Shah, after striking a Rs 7.4 billion plea-bargain deal with the culprit in July 2010 when around 46,000 affectees of this rip-off “Ponzi Scheme”had lodged complaints that were ripped off by Sibt-ul-Hasan Gilani (Double Shah) and Tassawar Hussain Gillani.

As far as the housing sector scandals are concerned, NAB Lahore had returned Rs360 million to the Elite Town affectees, reached a plea-bargain of Rs 2billion in the Ferozepur City scam, pledged to give plots worth Rs18bn to the affectees of the Pak-Arab Housing Society Lahore and ensured handing over of plots and houses worth over Rs 4 billion to the affectees in Khayaban-e-Amin Housing Society Scheme at Raiwind Road.

By June 29, 2018, NAB had received over 11,000 complaints against the management of Eden Housing Scheme and the number of applications against the Paragon Housing Society has jumped up to around 200 with the arrests of Messrs Saad Rafique, Salman Rafique and Qaiser Ameen Butt.

NAB has already frozen and seized Rs 20 billion assets of management of Eden Housing Society.