NAB has solid evidence of billions of rupees money-laundering: chairman

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal Sunday said the Bureau had solid evidence of money-laundering of billions of rupees by the big fish and, on the basis of that evidence, it filed references against the corrupt people.

“NAB is on the right track due to commitment of its officials. Solid evidence of billions of rupees money-laundering are available, which were laundered by opening fake accounts in the names of ‘falooda walas’, ‘chhabri walas’ and ‘paupar walas’, he said in a statement on Sunday. The NAB chairman said officers were working with dedication and commitment as per law. He said NAB investigates white-collar mega corruption cases and time is required to probe such cases, as some information needed to be collected from abroad. “There is a difference between white-collar crimes and street crimes,” he said.

The NAB chairman promised taking the ongoing flour and sugar scam investigations to logical conclusion as per law. He said Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Father of the Nation, in his address to the assembly, had identified bribery and nepotism as the main curses.

He said NAB was committed to logical conclusion of mega corruption cases. He said NAB was the focal institution of Pakistan under the UN Convention against corruption and the chairman of Saarc Anti-Corruption Forum.

He said NAB was considered a role model organisation in Saarc countries. “Transparency International Pakistan, PILDAT, Mishal Pakistan have lauded anti-graft watchdog’s anti-corruption endeavours,” he said. He said NAB had so far recovered Rs714 billion since its inception, which was a great achievement.

“Some 1,243 corruption cases, having accumulative corruption volume of Rs943 billion, are under trial in various accountability courts,” he said. Justice (R) Javed Iqbal said NAB had constituted Combined Investigation Team (CIT) to benefit from the collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers. He said the CIT had the services of director, additional director, investigation officer, legal counsel and experts of monetary and land revenue department.