LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday distributed cheques worth Rs 760 million among 3,000 affectees of Model Housing Enclave Project and Ferozpur Housing Society.

“NAB is striving hard to ensure complete implementation of rule of law. It is among my top priorities to ensure compensation for looted hard-earned money of all affectees and we do not believe in projection of any act,” said NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal while distributing the cheques at its Thokar Niaz Baig Headquarters here. He said it is for the first time in history that NAB has distributed a huge amount of Rs 2.5 billion, recovered from the accused through holding plea bargain (PB), within only two years among the affectees in any single housing society scandal. He said that some elements tried to hatch propaganda against NAB but the bureau would continue to work on merit, adding that criticism only for the sake of criticism is not justified. He added that in white collar crime cases, the court doesn’t issue 90-day remand, but the remand is granted after production of satisfactory evidences in the court.

Appreciating the performance of NAB Lahore, the chairman said that the joy and happiness at the faces of affectees proved that NAB officers/officials are serving the nation by utilizing their energies. “During last two years another amount of Rs1.32 billion was also returned to the affectees of other housing societies and (recovery) in the Model Housing Enclave is also a pride for NAB,” Iqbal remarked. Regarding the complaints of business community, the NAB chairman said that no businessman in the country ever faced problems due to NAB, adding that the stock exchange could not make a positive trend if the NAB was creating problems for the business community.

Earlier in the day, all the combined investigations teams (CITs) led by the DG NAB Lahore briefed the chairman about pace of investigations into mega corruption cases.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021