Bureaucrats would be exempted from appearing in NAB: deputy chairman

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau Deputy Chairman Sohail Nasir has said that in cases of complaints against bureaucrats, the NAB would refrain from directly summoning them to the bureau.

Instead, an independent complaint cell has been established under the supervision of the chief secretary at the Civil Secretariat to address such concerns fairly and impartially.Addressing a ceremony to distribute the recovered money among the affected parties of the Pak-Arab scam Tuesday, he pointed out that the economy is on the verge of collapse, and providing a business-friendly atmosphere to the business community will be the prime objective of the bureau.

For this purpose, the NAB chairman has visited numerous chambers to ensure support and cooperation in any aspect in the future.NAB’s Lahore DG Amjad Majeed Olakh informed the participants that the bureau had arranged two similar events before to return the looted money of the people during the last six months, and around Rs7.5 billion have been distributed among those affected by various scams.

He said that the Lahore NAB has recovered more than Rs35.6 billion since its inception to date. He said that the Lahore NAB had materialised the biggest ever plea bargain in the Eden scam worth Rs16 billion, from which Rs7 billion have been disbursed among Eden affectees.

The NAB was making efforts to ensure the compensation of the hard-earned money of the affected, he said, adding that it has always urged the people to thoroughly check the documents and also get them verified before buying a house or a piece of land.

He said people should refrain from investing their money in fake housing schemes. It had been observed that some housing societies’ owners were fooling people by showing them fake maps and pieces of land.

He said the success stories of NAB are usually overlooked by society; however, it will stick to its mandate.

Before concluding the ceremony, the deputy chairman handed over Rs1.67 billion in cheques among the affected parties of the Pak-Arab scam.