Daily Times

The Executive Board meeting of NAB-EBM was held on Tuesday at NAB Headquarters, chaired by NAB Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal. The meeting was attended by Syed Asghar Haider, Prosecutor General Accountability, Zahir Shah, Director General Operation, Irfan Naeem Mangi, DG,NAB, Rawalpindi and other senior officers of NAB.

It has been a yearlong policy of NAB to share details of the NAB EBM meeting with the people. Indeed this does not aim at hurting the feelings of any person, reads a statement issued by the bureau.

“NAB is a people friendly institution, which always believes in protecting the dignity and respect of every person as per law. The inquiries and investigations are initiated on the basis of alleged allegations which are not final as the go ahead signal is only given in a case – after obtaining point of view of both sides of the picture as per law.”

The EBM accorded approval to filing of reference against Ejaz Haroon, former Chairman PIA, Abdul Ghani Majeed and others on their involvement in illegal allotment of plots in Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Limited (Kidney Hills) Karachi and payment of those plots through fake bank accounts which inflicted heavy losses to national exchequer.

The EBM okayed conducting of inquiry against the officers/officials of Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation. The EBM accorded approval of referring the complaint regarding negligence in performance of official duty by official/officers of Customs deployed at Sost Dry Port to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for further proceedings as per law.

The EBM has said that NAB always believes in respecting the sanctity and respect of parliament and parliamentarians. Business community play important role in the progress and prosperity of the country. NAB strongly denied the impression that the business community is perturbed due to NAB’s action. NAB always believes to perform its duties in accordance with law. Business community and all other segments of Pakistani communities also desire the transformation of the country into prosperous, corruption free and developed country.

“NAB has outrightly rejected and brushed aside the impression of some elements about death of accused person in its custody, adding that such baseless and misleading allegations can’t stop NAB from performing its legal and constitutional obligations to eradicate corruption from country. NAB has decided to initiate probe against the baseless, misleading, concocted and fabricated propaganda against NAB in order to tarnish its image and repute as an institution under clause 31 (a) of NAB Ordinance.”

Justice Javed Iqbal has said that NAB’s faith is to ensure corruption-free Pakistan as eradication of corruption from the country is the topmost priority of bureau. Since inception, the NAB has recovered Rs 714 billion from corrupt elements directly and indirectly and deposited the looted amount into national exchequer. The performance of NAB has been appreciated by reputed national and international institutions which is an honour for the NAB. NAB is national anti-corruption institution having no affiliation with an individual, group and political party. It has only affiliation with the state of Pakistan.

He directed to utilise all available resources for concluding complaint verifications, inquiries and investigations in the light of relevant laws. He directed prosecutors and investigation officers to pursue the corruption cases in accountability courts after complete preparations so that the looted amount could be deposited in the national kitty.