-Mandviwalla wants NAB Chief to appear before Senate
By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Sunday said that they have concrete evidence of money laundering worth billions of rupees from the country.
Criticizing those who claim that there was no money laundering from the country, the NAB chairman said that billions of rupees were transferred illegally abroad. He further said that money laundering was the major reason behind the ill-constructed infrastructure in the country. He said that even people were fooled in the name of religion through the Modarba scandal.
Shedding light on the performance of the NAB, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal said that since its establishment, the accountability watchdog deposited Rs 714 billion looted from the national exchequer.
He said that the NAB was responsible for probing white-collar crime and such cases needed time to collect evidence. “We have detected billions of rupees being transferred abroad through benami accounts in the name of Falooda wala [ice cream seller] and chabri wala [pedlar],” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) received over 400 money laundering cases from the country, a report of the agency revealed showing an increase in the number of such cases during 2020. “The country reported 409 cases of money laundering during the outgoing year 2020,” a report of the FIA said adding that for the first time, even police authorities also referred the money laundering cases to the agency.
It said that the FIA received 289 cases of money laundering, referred by the police department. A meeting of the FIA was held in Karachi, where it was decided to register 105 cases against the referred cases.
Meanwhile, Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla on Sunday reaffirmed his announcement that the chairman of the National Account¬ability Bureau (NAB) will be summoned to the Senate to answer questions about the accountability watchdog’s alleged illegal actions.
Speaking to reporters in Lahore, he said “production warrants” will be issued for the NAB chairman if he refuses to appear in the upper house.
After NAB froze more than three million shares of different companies registered in Mandviwala’s name with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in connection with the fake accounts case last month, the Senate deputy chairman has vowed to expose the bureau internationally.
He earlier announced that a special session of the Senate will be requisitioned to take up a privilege motion that he has submitted against NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal.
On Sunday, he conceded that it was a “failure” on the part of political parties to not have amended the National Accountability Ordinance. He said businessmen had nothing to do with NAB but it issued notices to people for even selling a private plot or importing something.
“We must pass a law that whenever an allegation is levelled against a parliamentarian, they will be held accountable by the parliament,” he said.
Mandviwalla said all of the hearings of the Senate committee that will take up the issue will be transparent and will be held before the media in which all of NAB’s alleged wrongdoings will be discussed including “fake degrees, fake domiciles and assets beyond means” of the bureau’s officials.
Asked whether he believed that the Senate was “controlled”, Mandviwalla said he was proceeding in accordance with the rules and no one had stopped him from summoning anyone. “If somebody stops [me], they will violate the Constitution and rules of Senate,” he added.
He alleged that all government departments including the Federal Investigation Agency and Anti-Corruption Establishment were “following NAB’s directions” and had lost their independence.
“A NAB IO (investigation officer) goes to FIA and asks it to issue warrants for a person and arrest them. What is happening? This has become a banana republic.”
Mandviwalla had at a press conference on December 7 accused NAB of violating human rights and vowed to get it blacklisted internationally.
“I am going to approach every ambassador in Pakistan, every human rights committee of every parliament I know in the world to inform them about human rights violations being committed by NAB,” he had said, adding: “I will ensure that NAB is blacklisted internationally.”
The Senate deputy chairman had held a similar news conference on November 29 days after NAB informed an accountability court that it had frozen 3.1 million shares of different companies registered in the name of Mandviwala with the SECP in connection with the fake accounts case.
The NAB chairman had halted the proceedings of the case and also held a meeting with Mandviwala the next day. However, after his meeting with the NAB chairman, Mandviwala had announced that he would continue his mission to expose NAB’s alleged illegal activities. On Friday, NAB submitted a report to the accountability court of Islamabad, reaffirming allegations against Mandviwalla in connection with the fake bank accounts case.
