NAB not to let pressure, criticism hinder its work: chairman

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (R) Javed Iqbal Friday said the Bureau will not come under any pressure and criticism and will continue to eradicate corruption and corrupt practices.

“The NAB is determined to logical conclusion of mega corruption cases of money laundering, fake accounts, misuse of authority, assets beyond known sources of income, cheating public at large, housing societies and Modarba by utilizing all its resources as per law,” he said while chairing a meeting to review overall performance of the Bureau at the headquarters here.

Javed said the NAB had apprehended untouchables and big fish for the first time in its history and not only brought them to justice, but also recovered Rs538.935 billion directly and indirectly between Oct 2017 and August 31, 2021. He said out of 179 mega corruption cases, 66 mega corruption cases had been brought to the logical conclusion, while 93 mega corruption cases were being tried by the accountability courts.

He said it had been decided to file requests for early hearing of undertrial cases in the accountability courts as per clause 16 (a) of NAB Ordinance, 1999. He said the NAB had received 496,460 complaints since its inception out of which 487,124 complaints had been disposed of. Javed said 16,093 Complaint Verification (CVs) had been authorized and 15,378 completed. The NAB has authorized 10,241 inquiries, out of which 9,275 have been completed.

He said the NAB had authorized 4,654 investigations out of which 4,358 have been completed by the NAB since its inception. “The NAB has recovered Rs819 Billion directly and indirectly since its inception,” he said. The NAB had filed 3,754 references with various accountability courts, out of which 2,477 references had been decided.