Corruption is the root-cause of all ills hindering the country’s progress and prosperity. Soon after taking over as the NAB Chairman on Oct 11, 2017, Justice (R) Javed Iqbal devised the policy of ‘Accountability for All’ and the slogan of ‘NAB's faith; corruption free Pakistan’.
From Oct 11, 2017 to Dec 31, 2018, he transformed the Bureau into an effective, vibrant and trust-worthy institution in just 13 months.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hand investigation over to the Bureau in the Panama Papers case, 56 public limited companies, 435 offshore companies and fake bank accounts testifies to it.
The National Accountability Bureau under the guidance of Justice Javed Iqbal has taken indiscriminate actions against corrupt elements in just 13 months thus increasing the people's confidence in it.
Over 59 percent people reposed confidence in the NAB policies in a Gallup and Gillani survey. Owing to that trust, the NAB received around 54,344 complaints from Oct 2017 to Dec 31, 2018 — the highest in a year period history of NAB.
The NAB had approved 2,125 complaint verifications, 1,059 inquiries, 302 investigations, arrested 561 and filed 590 corruption references with various accountability courts. It also recovered record Rs4,200 million from corrupt elements and deposited the recovered money in the national exchequer.
The NAB also enjoyed 70.8 percent unprecedented conviction ratio in 2018. Since its inception, the Bureau has received 408,431 complaints out of which it approved 14,069 complaint verifications, 9,400 inquiries, 4,122 investigations, arrested 3,913 and filed 3,488 corruption referenced with various accountability courts.
The Bureau recovered record Rs289.991 billion from corrupt elements and deposited it in the national exchequer. Right now, 1,219 corruption references involving Rs900 billion corruption are at various stages of hearing in different accountability courts.
Justice (R) Javed Iqbal says eradication of corruption is their national responsibility. The top most priority of the NAB is to conclude mega corruption cases as early as possible. The looted national wealth should be recovered from the corrupt and proclaimed offenders by bringing them into the dock.
The recovered amount would help complete the unfinished projects. The strategy adopted by Justice (R) Javed to curb corruption has already been admitted as the most effective.
Justice Javed encourages hardworking officers and discourages incompetent officers.
The chairman himself listens to the people's grievances by holding an open court every last Thursday of the month. He has to date listened to over 4,000 complaints. All regional director generals also listen to the people's complaints at their respective offices on the last Thursday of every month.
The chairman has also chaired 25 meetings of the Executive Board at the NAB Headquarters in last one year. The meetings have allowed holding hundreds of complaint verifications, investigations, inquiries and references. The NAB is utilizing all available resources to eradicate corruption in all its forms. The NAB is also a role model for the Saarc countries. Pakistan was elected first chairman of the Saarc anti-corruption forum.
The NAB has also inked an agreement with China for eradication of corruption. It does not believe in discrimination against any suspect. The NAB only considers cases and not faces. The positive results of chairman's zero tolerance for corruption have started
pouring in and total elimination of corruption is not afar.
The Bureau had received 40,156 applications in Modarba and Musharka scandals. So far, 44 suspects have been arrested and Rs616 million recovered from culprits. From same culprits, the Bureau has recovered 6,000 Kanal land, 10 houses and 12 precious vehicles and filed 28 references with the accountability courts.
The Bureau has also returned the housing societies' looted amount to the public, who have thanked the chairman for recovering their hard-earned life savings from the housing societies.
Justice Javed has termed eradication of corruption his top priority. He has recovered record Rs303 billion from corrupt elements and deposited it in the national exchequer.
