By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Javed Iqbal has said that bringing cases to a logical conclusion in accordance with the law is the top priority of NAB. The NAB does not belong to any political party but to the state of Pakistan.
According to details, a high level meeting was held under the chairmanship of NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal in which the overall performance of NAB was reviewed. The Chairman NAB said that eradication of corruption from the country, return of looted money, money laundering and mega corruption cases should be brought to a logical conclusion in accordance with the law, adding that NAB does not belong to any political party but to the state of Pakistan. The NAB has fixed a period of 10 months for the investigation, inquiry and investigation of complaints to deal with the cases, which are yielding positive results.
Chairman NAB Javed Iqbal said that the conviction rate of NAB accused is 68.88% which is higher than other anti-corruption agency. Days earlier, Javed Iqbal defended the anti-corruption watchdog against allegations of bias and committing excesses, saying closing down NAB will only benefit the elite.
Speaking to a group of traders in Peshawar, Iqbal said NAB had always been the subject of a “nefarious propaganda” and allegations were levelled against it. “And the only basic reason for that was that people hadn’t imagined even in their dreams that someone could ask them about their wealth,” he added.
Iqbal said the accountability watchdog had recovered Rs487 billion ill-gotten money in a period of three years, while Rs2.5bn were recovered from a housing scheme by NAB Lahore and distributed among the affectees.
He said: “Should NAB be shut only because it asked you where you acquired these billions of rupees from?” He said when persons suspected of misappropriating huge sums of money were questioned about them, their first response was accusing the bureau of “intiqami karwai” .
