Daily Times

National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Multan filed some 82 corruption references in various accountability courts from the year 2018 to 2020, while 22 suspects were convicted besides imposing a fine of Rs 306.38 million, said director general Multan bureau Nauman Aslam on Friday.

Briefing the meeting of NAB via video link, presided over by NAB chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal, he said as many as 15 convicted persons had returned Rs 343.97 million through Plea Bargain after approval by the Learned Accountability Court Multan. NAB Multan has indirectly recovered Rs 3,748.1 million pertaining to different departments under Federal and Provincial governments.

The NAB Multan DG informed that besides nabbing the culprits, our efforts have resulted in retrieval of misappropriated state lands belonging to the Board of Revenue (BOR), Irrigation department and Local Government departments of Punjab under its prevention regime. A sum of Rs 726.8 million had been recovered from the culprits involved in preparing bogus proprietary records, occupying of state lands and selling the same amongst the general public.

The NAB Multan DG also informed the meeting that in the case of disbursement of loans amongst the public by the government of the Punjab through National Rural Support Program (NRSP), the Bureau has ensured recovery of Rs. 502.6 million from NRSP in favor of the said government.

He informed that a lion’s share of indirect recoveries of Rs. 2,518 million relates to housing sector. A mounting growth of illegal housing societies by the developers / owners of land in connivance with the regulator have been observed; where general public have been deprived of their hard earned money and legitimate rights by non-transferring of ownership rights and possessions, non-provision of basic facilities and non-submission of government fees / dues.