The Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday authorised conducting a comprehensive investigation into the mega sugar and wheat scandals, including extortion of billions of rupees, undue price hikes, smuggling of wheat and sugar and subsidy on sugar.
Earlier this year, the country battled shortages in the supply of both wheat and sugar, which had led to a surge in prices, leading to fierce criticism of the government’s policies as an inflation-battered public was left even more burdened. Under pressure, Prime Minister Imran Khan, amidst allegations that his own allies were behind the crises, had announced an inquiry promising strict punishment for anyone found guilty of profiting from these scandals. On April 4, two reports by the Federal Investigation Agency on the said crises were made public, exposing ruling PTI’s bigwig Jahangir Tareen, Khusro Bakhtiar, PML-Q’s Monis Elahi and their relatives as being involved in the scam and benefiting from export subsidies at a time when the commodity was short in the country.
According to a NAB spokesman, the EBM chaired by Justice (r) Javed Iqbal authorised conducting inquiries of the officials of the Capital Development Authority, management of River Garden Housing Society and mega corruption cases in Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) for inflicting billions of rupee losses to the public exchequer. The EBM accorded approval to sending complaint verification against management of International Islamic University Islamabad and others to the relevant department.
The EBM approved closing inquiries against officers of Privatisation Commission of Pakistan and others, Justice Malik Qayyum, former attorney general of Pakistan and others, Professor Dr Ikramullah Khan, head of dermalogy, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad and others, managing committee of Interior Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Raja Ali Akbar and others owing to absence of evidence as per law.
NAB chairman said the anti-graft watchdog has filed 610 corruption references in various accountability courts and directly or indirectly recovered record Rs 178 billion from corrupt elements in the last two years and deposited the entire recovered amount into the national exchequer. Right now 1,275 corruption references having accumulated value of Rs 943 billion are under trial in various accountability courts, he added.
