LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has said if he is given the powers, which are available to the anti-corruption authorities in Saudi Arabia, he can bring back all the looted money in shortest possible time.
The Saudi authorities took four weeks to recover the looted wealth and he would accomplish the task in just three weeks, he claimed while addressing traders and manufacturers at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here on Thursday.
“Times have changed. Now even those corrupt people have been sent behind the bars about whom nobody had ever imagined so,” Javed Iqbal said adding everybody would have to reap what he would sow. The NAB chief said cases of business community pertaining to income tax and sales tax would be referred to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as tax evasion was different from money-laundering.
He said money-laundering was a crime and the Supreme Court of Pakistan had also sent a number of such cases to NAB in the past, adding that the Bureauhad always filed references after thorough investigation. He said he had received no complaint against NAB officials from any trader during the past five months. The chairman said various cases regarding Panama scandal were in progress as the Bureau had set its goal to make Pakistan corruption-free, adding that NAB was a people-friendly institution.–Agencies
