Shahbaz Sharif’s complaint: NAB chairman orders probe into $4 bn Chiniot mining scam

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: On a complaint by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Chairman NAB Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal Monday took a notice of alleged corruption and illegal award of contract for exploring iron ore in Chiniot. The chairman NAB has directed DG NAB Lahore to conduct a comprehensive inquiry and submit report accordingly. The DG NAB Lahore has also been directed to inquire about the reasons behind closing the inquiry of mineral extraction so that the responsibility could be fixed and action be taken against responsible officers who closed inquiry allegedly against law.

The Chairman NAB also directed that the guidance could be sought from the decisions of the High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In 2007 after discovery of the $4 billion assets, the mining contract was awarded to a fake company, Earth Resource Private Limited (ERPL).

In a judgement on this issue, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had directed the NAB to probe the matter thoroughly. The judgment had noted strong indications of an invisible but powerful political support to ERPL. The Supreme Court rejected the petition of ERPL chief Arshad Waheed against the LHC decision. The NAB, however, quashed the case in 2013 and dropped all charges against Arshad Waheed.

The NAB has finally taken up the inquiry into the scam after the government of Punjab highlighted the massive robbery of Rs. 450 billion in Chiniot mining project, said the a Punjab government on Monday in press release.

“The purpose of highlighting this mega scandal, the largest ever in terms of its sheer size, was to hold those responsible who sought to loot this nation. Finding those responsible for this massive robbery of Rs. 450 billion is as important as identifying the reasons of delay in the start of investigation by NAB. We are thankful to Chairman NAB for taking notice on the appeal by Government of Punjab,” the government added.

Chaired a meeting on Monday to review overall progress on corruption related complaints and measures taken to address all corruption related complaints at NAB Headquarters, NAB chairman said that NAB's priority is not only to take action on people's corruption-related complaints but also to simplify the complaint-lodging mechanism so that all complainants could be kept informed about the progress and action taken on their complaints by NAB as per law.

He said a mechanism should be devised and implemented within no time that no complaint could be closed or garnered without approval of Chairman NAB an now onwards no complaint could be dropped without prior approval of the chairman. “Action will be taken on each and every complaint as per law,” he said.

He said that special cells would be established at NAB Headquarters and all Regional Bureaus while the Operation Division, Prosecution Division and IT Cell would devise a joint strategy to provide remedy to the complainants. The meeting was attended by NAB Deputy Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar and Prosecutor General Accountability Justice (Retd) Syed Asghar Haider and other senior officers of NAB.