Daily Times

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recovered a significant amount of money from corruption cases in the first seven months of 2024 and deposited the same in the national exchequer.

According to NAB spokesperson, the corruption watchdog recovered over Rs 7.08 billion from January to July 2024 and deposited the same into the national exchequer.

Additionally, the spokesperson said that the NAB returned over Rs 4 billion million to 21760 victims of fraud and cheating during the period.

According to the NAB, over Rs 2 billion has been deposited to the federal government; over 136 million to the Punjab government, over Rs 13 deposited into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s account; and over Rs 259 million to the Sindh government.

The NAB’s spokesperson said that Rs 500,000 of plea bargain have been deposited with the Balochistan government while over Rs 43 million has been deposited into various government departments and financial institutions.

The spokesperson for NAB stated that the bureau is continuing its efforts to recover more money from corruption cases and return it to the national treasury or the affected individuals.

Earlier in May, acting President Yousuf Raza Gilani approved an ordinance to amend the existing law, empowering the NAB to keep an accused on physical remand for up to 40 days.

Before the ordinance, a person arrested by the NAB could be remanded into the bureau’s custody for 14 days. However, under the amended law, the duration of physical remand has been increased to 40 days.

Furthermore, the punishment for NAB officials for making false cases has been reduced from 5 years to 2 years.

The ordinance was passed amidst a hearing of the NAB amendments case by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, challenged by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan.

The previous Pakistan Democratic Movement-led (PDM) government approved amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 in a bid to curtail the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).