The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday that nine officials from the public sector companies have refused to return the excess amount they received as salaries. In a report submitted to the SC, NAB Lahore Director General Saleem Shahzad said that out of 54 officials who had received excess salaries, 45 officials had agreed to return the amount. The report said that NAB had recovered more than Rs 320 million from the officials who received excess salaries. A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heared a suo motu case regarding heads of public sector companies who were withdrawing market-based salaries that were over and above regular salaries based on an officer’s grade. The chief justice asked Safe City Authority Managing Director Ali Amir Malik, who is one of the nine officials who refused to return the excess amount, why he had been receiving Rs 650,000 a month when, according to the government pay scale, he should have received Rs 150,000-200,000. The bench ordered that the remaining officials return the excess amount within three months, warning that otherwise the court would take action. The hearing was then adjourned for an indefinite period. Published in Daily Times, November 17th 2018.