NAB recovered Rs490b from 2018 to 2020: chairman

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said the logical conclusion of mega corruption and white-collar crime cases against big fish was top priority of the Bureau.

“NAB is committed to eradicating corruption by adopting the ‘Accountability for All’ policy, which has started yielding positive,” he said at a meeting called to review performance of

the Prosecution Division of NAB at Bureau’s headquarters.

The NAB chairman directed the prosecution division and all regional bureaus of NAB to put in their best efforts in vigorous pursuance of under trial cases of NAB with complete preparation on the basis of solid evidence in accordance with the law so that the corrupt should be brought to justice and looted money recovered and deposited in national exchequer, considering it as national duty as per law.

He said NAB, during the tenure of the present management, from 2018 to 2020, recovered Rs490 billion and Rs790 billion since its inception, which is a record achievement as compared to other anti-corruption organisations.

The meeting was informed that the prosecution division was working closely with the operations division in order to have legal assistance to NAB’s operations division and all regional bureaus of NAB in conduct of complaint verifications, inquiries, investigations, references and pending cases of NAB vigorously on the basis of solid evidence in the courts as per law.

The meeting was informed that on the directions of the NAB chairman, constant deliberations, monitoring and performance analysis of the prosecution division were being made and due to this reason the overall conviction ratio was approximately 68.8 per cent in the accountability courts.

It was informed that the accountability court in Karachi announced judgment in reference No 05/2012 whereby the accused namely Syeed Muhammad Furqan (Ex-Dir, Eastern Capital), Rasheed Ahmed, Aftab Hassan and Muhammad Saleem Yousaf were convicted/ sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fine of Rs600 million each. Accused Asif Kudia, Muhammad Aslam, M Siddique Siddidy, Mst Shehla Iftikhar, Syed Shahzad Ali Bukhari, Munir Ahmed and Mst Farhat Perveen were acquitted of the charges.