Some people want to be arrested to become political martyr: NAB

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Monday said some people wanted the probe body to arrest them so that they could portray themselves as political martyrs.

“However, they don’t know that NAB arrest accused on the basis of merit in cases under investigation, not on anyone's wishes,” the chairman added. Javed Iqbal lamented that some people had made a habit of not appearing before the Bureau, despite summons.

Most probably, the chairman was referring to former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, who again skipped his appearance before the NAB in the Saaf Pani Company scam. The chairman appreciated the performance of NAB Lahore, saying that the Lahore chapter had returned Rs 18 billion to the affected people after recovering the money from corrupt.

He was addressing officers at the NAB Lahore Complex after Lahore Region DG Saleem Shahzad briefed him on the performance and ongoing inquiries and investigations.

Justice (retd) Javed said corruption of billions of rupees had surfaced during the probe of Punjab companies scandal and billions were paid to consultants in those companies.

The chairman also revealed that after opening the mega corruption cases, the anti-graft body received a threat to blow up its Islamabad headquarters with explosives. “The decision of life and death rests with Allah and the Bureau and its officers are determined that the war against corruption will continue without discrimination,” he remarked.

The chairman said the Bureau had taken out mega corruption cases from old dusty files and the progress in the cases was satisfactory. In the coming days, most of the cases in terms of references will be filed in courts with concrete evidence, he added. He said that for the first time in 70 years, the Bureau had questioned the corrupt elements for not implementing transparency and misusing their vested authority.

The chairman stressed that the NAB doesn’t see faces but the cases and bureau had nothing to do with elections. He said that the only purpose of the Bureau was to eliminate the corrupt elements and to secure national interest.