NAB chief to take mega corruption cases to logical conclusion

PESHAWAR: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Tuesday vowed to take mega corruption cases to a logical conclusion.

He said this while chairing a meeting during his visit to the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa office. The NAB chief said that the anti-graft body was making sincere and strenuous efforts for eradication of corruption from the country and returning stolen money to the masses.

The NAB chairman also reviewed performance of the KP NAB regional office. The KP Director General NAB, Fayyaz Ahmed Qureshi gave a detail presentation on the performance of the regional office. During the last 22 months, he said, the NAB had recovered embezzled money worth Rs 71 billion and deposited in the national exchequer.

He said that the KP NAB was an important regional bureau, which played a key role in the overall performance of the accountability organization. He said that the NAB performance negated the impression that NAB KP was not doing any work.

"The NAB is a national institution. And its officers and officials are performing their duties keeping in view the national responsibility in mind," he added. The NAB chairman clarified that business community had been playing the role of backbone in national development and they had all regard and respect for them. "The NAB has decided not to take cases related to sales tax and income tax," he added.

The NAB chairman said that cases of sales tax and income tax pending before the bureau have been transferred to FBR. He said that separate desks have also been set up for redressing grievances of the business community at NAB headquarters and regional offices across the country.

The NAB chairman was also briefed about progress of probe on cases of important nature including Bus Rapid Transit Project Peshawar, Billion Tree Tsunami, Malam Jabba Resort and BoK and others.

About the performance, the NAB DG said that the regional bureau has recovered embezzled amount of Rs500 million during the last 22 months and distributed among the affectees. "The bureau also recovered looted money through fake housing schemes in the province and returned back to the affectees," he added.

He said that the bureau received 10,085 complaints since October 2013 which were properly reviewed under the law. About the references, it said that a total of 796 complaints were approved for proper investigation of which probe in progress on 68 cases.