Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry has given Rs 411 million to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from the money the bureau recovered from the corrupt people.

Under the NAB Ordinance, five percent of the recovered money is payable to the NAB as its share and this share is distributed to NAB officers.

The NAB recovered billions of rupees from corrupt people in 2015 and then sought its share from the Finance Ministry.

A document presented by the Finance Ministry to the parliament disclosed that Rs 411 million were given to the NAB chairman. The Finance Ministry had earlier released Rs 1.80 billion to the NAB as its share.

The NAB authorities had forwarded a summary to the Ministry of Finance, seeking its share from the money recovered from the corrupt people. As a result, the finance secretary released Rs 410.66 million to the NAB under the head of “Save in Recoveries” after reviewing its summary. Its record has been provided to the parliament.

The NAB spokesman refused to comment on this issue. According to a clause incorporated into the NAB Ordinance during the Musharraf government, NAB gets its fixed share from the money recovered from the corrupt people. The nation is unaware where are the billions of rupees, which the NAB receives from the Finance Ministry, spent. NAB authorities do not provide details in this regard.

The Nawaz government never sought any report on the share received by the NAB from the Finance Ministry.

The NAB has recovered billions of rupees so far from the looters and plunderers and received billions of rupees as its share from the Fiancé Ministry. The NAB made these recoveries from low-grade officers and fraudsters, but it failed to recover the billions of rupees looted by 179 big fish. The Supreme Court had directed the NAB to probe into the alleged corruption of 179 high profile people, but the NAB did not do so. The NAB is scared of laying its hands on the big fish.