NAB apprehends 226 accused, sentences 22 in last five months: Chairman

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has apprehended 226 corruption accused besides filing 197 corruption references against various accused in different Accountability Courts in last five months, Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal said Tuesday.

Chairing a meeting, he highlighted his five months performance saying the accountability courts had sentenced 27 accused, said a press release issued here.

NAB has approved to verify 55 complaints, conducted 39 inquiries and 33 investigations as per law and in light of available evidence since his assuming the office on Oct 10, 2017

Deputy Chairman, Prosecutor General Accountability and senior officers were also present in the meeting.

Chairman NAB Justice Javed Iqbal said the elimination of corruption was the priority as the NAB was working under the slogan of ‘Accountability for All’.

He said every citizen of Pakistan was looking towards NAB to purge the country from menaces of corruption and malpractices.

The chairman said after assuming the responsibilities on Oct 10, 2017, he vowed to means business and to change the culture of NAB by only concentrating on ensuring accountability of the corrupt without any discrimination. NAB was not only conducting inquiries, verifications and investigations of the cases on scientific basis and by ensuring merit and transparency.

NAB was also strictly adhering to completing the investigations of cases within the prescribed period of 10 months only. He said corruption was a curse but also hurdle in the prosperity and progress of the country.

He said NAB officers have adopted zero tolerance policy for elimination of corruption without caring about the status of the accused. NAB officers consider across the board accountability as their national duty.

He said he had sincerely started working in NAB sans caring about any duress with the help of Almighty Allah.

He directed officers to expedite the ongoing investigations for the elimination of corruption from country.

He reiterated that NAB did not believe on taking revenge from anyone. NAB officers were working as per law and in accordance with their mandate.

He said NAB was determined to ensure corruption free Pakistan as extermination of corruption was the voice of whole nation and time was not very far when Pakistan will be made corruption free with our joint efforts.