ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau Imtiaz Tajwar on Wednesday said that the Bureau had nothing to do with the acquittal of former president Asif Ali Zardari while the bureau was considering filing an appeal in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case. He said NAB would implement the directions of the Supreme Court with regard to its judgment on the Panama case and file the references within the stipulated time.
“We will follow the directions of the Supreme Court with regard to the Panama case and will file the references against the Sharif family before the deadline,” he said while addressing a press conference along with Rawalpindi NAB DG Zahir Shah and Prosecutor General Waqas Qadeer Dar here on Wednesday at the NAB headquarters.
In reply to a question, the NAB official said the Bureau would follow the Supreme Court’s guidelines for filing the references against the Sharif family. “The replies are still coming from other countries on the correspondence sent by the JIT,” he said.
To another question on putting the Sharif family’s names on the Exit Control List, Tajwar said the Bureau did not have the powers to put someone’s names on the ECL as it only recommended while it was the prerogative of NAB’s Combined Investigation Team to decide whether to make an arrest or not on failure to appear before it.
In reply to another question with regard to re-opening of the Hudaibiya case, the Rawalpindi DG NAB said it was a complex legal issue on which the courts had given the decision between 2011 and 2014. “The consultation on legal issues was going on,” he said.
Asked about the acquittal of former president Asif Ali Zardari, he replied that the case against the former president was filed in 1998 and its supplementary was filed in 2001 while record was sent to high court and the Supreme Court and the foreign record was still available. “One of the officers in the references case had died while the other had left the country,” he said and added that the sitting chairman had nothing to do with the acquittal. He said during the trial, the NRO was promulgated and the reference stood disposed of, while it was re-opened after the revoking of the NRO.
To a question on deleting the name of Dr Asim Hussain from the ECL, he said NAB would follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court, which had allowed him to go abroad for 30 days.In reply to yet another question, he said there was a reduction in ratio of convictions in white collar crimes.
NAB’s Prosecutor General Waqas Qadeer Dar said in the year 2016, NAB had filed 55 references and out of which convictions were declared in 40 cases while in 15 references the accused got acquittal. “In the petitions under Article 199, 1,371 cases were decided in favour of NAB while in 372 petitions decisions were against NAB,” he said and added that 50 cases of 103 cases were decided in favour of NAB in high courts, while 66 cases were decided in favour of NAB in the Supreme Court and 53 decisions were against the NAB.
In reply to yet another question, DG NAB Zahir Shah said NAB respected all the institutions as they were the employees of the State and did not have liking and disliking for any particular political party. “Respecting the decisions of the judiciary is our responsibility, and the NAB brought those people before the law who did not give importance to the law of the land,” he said.
NAB’s Deputy Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar said that Pakistan was considered a role model in Saarc due to its effective anti-corruption strategy. He said that during the tenure of the present NAB management, the bureau perfected its procedures after taking various new initiatives, which have started yielding excellent results, and we can say that today NAB has rejuvenated in Pakistan to eradicate corruption from the country.
He said over 42,000 character building societies had been established with the help of NAB and HEC in universities/colleges and schools as youths are considered the vanguard in this fight. “More than 42,000 character building societies (CBS) have been set up in universities/colleges,” he added.