close
Friday March 29, 2024

Ending corruption NAB’s priority: chairman

By Our Correspondent
November 16, 2019

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Friday paid a consecutive visit to the NAB Lahore office to review details of recoveries, disbursements in mega corruption scams and cases related to the housing sector.

The chairman was briefed by the director general NAB Lahore regarding updates in all mega corruption scams and investigations. Justice Javed said that bringing corruption to its logical end remains the NAB priority and it is also a fact that the NAB considers recovery of looted money from the corrupt elements as the prime responsibility. Commenting on the recovery worth billions of rupees by the NAB Lahore in the Double Shah scam and the disbursement of recovered money among thousands of affectees, he stated NAB officials are working tirelessly for the recovery of looted public money and termed their efforts appreciable. He said that recently the NAB Lahore distributed Rs 193.59 million among Double Shah scam affectees, whereas, another amount worth Rs 360 million is ready to be handed over to the affectees.

He said that in only Double Shah Scam, the NAB Lahore distributed more than Rs 1,050 million (Rs 1.5 billion) among thousands of affectees which helped establish a positive image and trust of the general public in the NAB. He said as a collective recovery during the last few months, Rs 71 billion were recovered and submitted to the national kitty.

Reviewing updates in housing sector cases, the chairman expressed satisfaction over the proceedings of the NAB Lahore by saying that the NAB has been laying particular focus on Illegal housing societies. He admired that the NAB Lahore remained successful in extending benefit to approximately 54,000 affectees in this regard. He longed for public support in timely intimation of illegal housing societies so that such societies may be dealt with at early stages and the financial loss of the public may be averted.

He warned regulators for not performing their duties up to the mark. He said the NAB Lahore has filed 14 corruption references related to the housing sector worth Rs 26 billion in last two years that can be termed a remarkable achievement on the part of the regional bureau