ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal Sunday said the Bureau’s effective anti-corruption strategy produced positive results and helped recover Rs535 billion looted money from Oct 2017 to June 2021. “The major focus of NAB is on corruption and corrupt practices, money-laundering, cases of cheating the public at large, wilful bank loan default and misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds,” he said in a statement here.
He said due to a proactive anti-corruption strategy, the NAB’s overall conviction rate remained about 66 per cent, which was a remarkable achievement in the investigation of white-collar crimes in the world.
Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal said the performance of all regional bureaus during the last three years remained exemplary compared with the previous years. He said the NAB filed 93 mega corruption cases, out of a total of 179 cases, while the cases were under trial in various accountability courts and 10 cases were at the inquiry stage and 10 mega corruption cases were at the investigation stages.
He said that out of 179 mega corruption cases, 66 had been disposed of as per the law. “There are 1,273 NAB references of approximately Rs1,300 billion under trial in different accountability courts throughout the country,” he said.
He said Gilani and Gallup survey indicated that 59 per cent people of Pakistan had shown trust in NAB, which was an evidence of NAB’s across-the-board accountability as per law. The NAB chairman said the reputed national and international organisations like Transparency International Pakistan, World Economic Forum, Global Peace Canada, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan have lauded the NAB efforts to eliminate corruption. He said in spite of criticism, NAB would continue its official duties not caring for any pressure, threat and criticism.
He said NAB is the focal organisation of Pakistan under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as the country was a signatory to the UNCAC. Pakistan is the only country in the world with which China had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for eradication of corruption.
He said NAB is the chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum. “This is a recognition of NAB’s excellent work as it is considered a role model among the SAARC countries,” he said.