Chairman NAB hints at accountability in circles of ruling party, coalition
ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice Retired Javed Iqbal on Monday hinted at accountability in the circles of the ruling party and its allied parties.
“There is a common perception that the NAB is targeting only specific people. But, mark my words, the wind is going to blow in the other direction too,” Chairman NAB Javed warned while addressing an event in Islamabad.
He said that he could not claim of a complete corruption-free society as corruption existed in different forms.
The chairman NAB asked whether there was a need to fear the accountability watchdog, if you had not committed embezzlement. He said the accountability institution did not see face and it only saw the case.
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“The country cannot travel on the path of development, until corruption is eradicated,” he said.
“The NAB has chosen the path to eradicate corruption. All the nation would have to collaborate with it in this regard. The parliament should play an active role for legislation to support it,” he said.
Javed Iqbal said the government had never interfered in the matter of the NAB. “Neither we allow any such thing.”
He also indicated of beginning an investigation in Peshawar BRT project. Reference was prepared in the BRT project, he said adding that action had not been taken on this matter so far because of the court’s stay order.
In an apparent response to Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif’s allegation, he said the NAB’s nexus was only with Pakistan and not with any other power in the country. “Whoever is asked about corruption, he says that a political vendetta was being taken,” he maintained.
“When Abu Bakar (RA) became Khalifa, after consultation, he reached this decision that he would not run his personal business. On the other hand, in our country we start running businesses when we are supposed to run the national affairs and within years this business multiplies,” he said.
The NAB chief said 382 billion rupees had been recovered since inception of the organization. While, 153 billion rupees had been recovered since 2017 only, he said adding that all the money had been transferred into the national exchequer.
“References worth 943 billion are subjudice and only 25 NAB courts are dealing with 1,261 references,” he said. He also said that the credit of bringing 39 billion of Malik Riaz from the UK went to the NAB.
