ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (APP):Chairman NAB Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal has said the bureau was the only institution in the world which has itself fixed 10 months’ timeframe to conclude white collar crime cases.
In a statement, he said NAB under its National Anti-Corruption Strategy was committed for logical conclusion of mega corruption white collar crimes cases by adopting “NAB’s Faith-Corruption free Pakistan” Policy as the number of complaints in 2019 were much better as comparing to the figures of complaints received in 2018. The overall complaints in 2019 were 53,643. Of which 42,760 complaints were processed. Similarly the action was taken on 41,414 complaints from out of a total of 48,591 complaints received in 2018.
In 2019, the bureau had conducted 1,308 complaint verifications, 1,686 inquiries, 609 investigations and recovered Rs 241.542 billion from corrupt elements.
Likewise, the bureau had recovered Rs 466.069 billion since the year 2,000, according to the bureau’s annual report of 2019.
He said that NAB has introduced a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) composed of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel to utilise their collective wisdom.
The accumulative success ratio of NAB was 68.8 percent in 2019 with 1,983 successful disposal of cases. NAB has established its state of the art Forensic Science Laboratory in NAB Rawalpindi. In 2019, 15,747 questioned documents and 300 thumb impressions were analyzed in 50 cases and forensic analysis was carried out on 74 digital devices (Laptops, Mobile phones, Hard Disks etc).
A total of 1,219 corruption references, involving over Rs 900 billion were under trial in different Accountability Courts.
Justice Javed said that absconders and proclaimed offenders would be arrested and taken to task as per law to recover looted money from them and subsequent depositing it in national exchequer.
Chairman NAB said that NAB has fully geared up to eradicate corruption. He directed all Regional Bureaus of NAB to file applications in respected accountability courts for early expediting the under trial corruption references.
He directed all prosecutors to pursue the cases with full preparations on the basis of solid and incriminating evidence to conclude the corruption references to their logical conclusion.
He said that Today, reputed national and international organisations were lauding NAB’s efforts under the dynamic leadership of Justice Javed Iqbal.
NAB has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Higher Education Commission to educate youth about the ill effects of corruption at an early age. More than 50,000 Character Building Societies have been established in colleges and universities of the country. A Central Library is established at NAB Headquarters. Keeping in view the requirements of officers, 1,038 books and journals etc. are available in the Central Library. Additionally, E-Library having 30, 000 electronic books on various subjects were also available for NAB officers/officials.
The Chairman NAB directed all DGs of NAB to conduct all complaint verifications, inquiries and investigations on the basis of solid evidence.
He hoped that joint efforts of all stakeholders could make Pakistan corruption free.
This is NAB’s faith and for this purpose, NAB officers were working hard with commitment, dedication and professionalism with the aim that eradication of corruption was our national duty.