National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal chaired a high-level meeting at NAB headquarters to review overall performance of the watchdog.
Speaking on the occasion, the chairman said the bureau is determined to take money laundering, mega corruption and white collar crimes cases to logical conclusion in a transparent way and on merit. He asked operations and prosecution divisions to file early hearing of applications in the accountability courts which are under trial. The pending cases have accumulated volume of Rs 943 billion looted money. The law will take its course against billions of rupee corruption, he said.
The chairman said the eradication of corruption is NAB’s top most priority. “All possible resources are being utilized to apprehend proclaimed offenders and absconders. NAB is striving hard to eradicate the menace of corruption. NAB officers are working hard to eradicate corruption by considering it their national duty. Performance of NAB has been lauded by Transparency International, PILDAT and Mishal,” he added.
The chairman said corruption is just like cancer which is mother of all evils and one of its solutions is surgery. “Instructions have been issued to prosecution and operation divisions to deal with mega corruption white collar crimes as well as all regional bureaus as per law. NAB has set up combined investigation team (CIT) comprising two investigation officers, one legal consultant and one finance expert. CIT works under the supervision of director, additional director and case officers. The establishment of the state of the art forensic science laboratory in Islamabad will further improve the standards of inquiries and investigations. The laboratory provides various services like digital forensic, question documents and finger prints. NAB is the only institution which has inked a MoU to ensure transparency in CPEC projects. Pakistan is the first chairman of Saarc anti-corruption forum which acknowledges meritorious services of bureau. NAB has been assigned the responsibility of corruption eradication and recovery of looted money. Since its inception, the bureau has recovered Rs 714 billion and deposited in the national exchequer,” he added.
