ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has so far disposed of a total of 46,123 complaints out of 51,591 received during 2019 while the remaining 13,299 complaints were being disposed of on priority, Bureau’s director general (operations) said on Monday.
Briefing a meeting, chaired by anti-graft Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, about the overall performance of NAB during 2019, he said the bureau had authorized 1,464 complaint verification’s, out of which 1,362 complaint verification’s have been completed, while investigations of 770 complaint verification’s were under process.
He said NAB has received over 30,000 applications from the affectees of the Mudarba/Mukharika scandals.
NAB has so far arrested 45 persons besides filing 28 references in different accountability courts. It has established over 50,000 character building societies across the country in various universities and colleges in order to aware people youth about the ill effects of corruption, said a press release.
The meeting was informed that out of 179 mega corruption cases, NAB had filed 98 corruption references in different accountability courts, while 52 references had been taken to a logical conclusion.
Currently, out of 179 mega corruption references, 13 inquiries and 16 investigations were under process.
The meeting was told that a total of 1,275 corruption references involving Rs943 billion were at different stages of hearing in 25 accountability courts. NAB had recovered Rs178 billion from the corrupt elements during the tenure of the present management.
NAB has so far arrested 45 persons besides filing 28 references in different accountability courts.
Speaking on the occasion, the chairman said a logical conclusion of mega corruption white-collar crime cases was the top priority of NAB.
Corruption was the mother of all evils and the bureau was committed to rooting out corruption in all its forms, he said.
NAB strongly believed in conducting the inquiries and investigations of white-collar crimes on scientific lines that too after collecting solid evidence as per law.
Justice Iqbal further said measures were being taken to check money laundering. The money stashed abroad through corrupt means would be taken back toáthe country as per law.
NAB has improved its overall workings with the help of the anti-corruption strategy. It has also fixed a period of 10 months to finish the case right from conducting complaint verification to filing a reference.
NAB has introduced a new concept of combined investigation team (CIT) to have the collective wisdom of senior officers which is lending quality. He said inquiries and investigations of fake housing/cooperative societies would be taken to logical conclusion.
NAB had filed a reference against Mufti Ehsanul Haq in the Modarba scam in an accountability court of Islamabad. The accountability court had awarded Ehsan ten years imprisonment and Rs9 billion fine.
Likewise, NAB had also filed another corruption reference in accountability court against Ghulam Rasool Ayubi in the same scam.
The court awarded 10 years imprisonment and Rs3.7 billion fine to the culprit. NAB has arrested 45 accused persons involved in the scandal and NAB is working hard to bring back the absconders with the help of Interpol so that the looted amount could be returned to the affectees.
He asked the people to invest in only legal andáapproved housing societies/cooperative societies after due verification from concerned regulators.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman NAB, Prosecutor General Accountability (PGA), DG Operations and other senior members of Bureau including director general of all Regional Bureaus attended the meeting through via video link.