NAB chairman: ‘1,273 references of Rs1,300 bn under trial in accountability courts’

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said there are about 1273 references under trial in accountability courts currently and their approximately worth is Rs1300 billion.

In a statement issued on Sunday, he said NAB was committed to bringing the corrupt elements to justice. "NAB has no affiliation with any political party, group and individual and the NAB officials have been directed to perform their duties in accordance with the law, as eradication of corruption is their national duty.”

He said NAB had conducted probe into 56 public limited companies, offshore companies, fake accounts, money laundering and misuse of authority, assets beyond known sources of income and cheating the public at large in illegal housing/ cooperative societies and modaraba scams etc.

He said plea bargains were deemed convictions, which were approved by the accountability courts.

He said NAB was chairman of the SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum as it was considered a role model for entire SAARC countries. He said that Pakistan and China had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for eradication of corruption.

"Pakistan and China are jointly working for ensuring transparency in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects,” he said.

He said NAB was the focal department under the United Nations Convention against corruption, which was a pride for Pakistan.

He said NAB’s anti-corruption strategy had started yielding results. Due to its effective strategy, NAB had recovered Rs814 billion looted money from the corrupt directly or indirectly since its inception. NAB’s conviction ratio is about 66 per cent, he added.

He said that NAB, during the last three years, recovered Rs533 billion from the corrupt elements, which was a record achievement.