ISLAMABAD (APP): National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has apprehended untouchables for the first time in the country’s history besides convicting 1,405 accused persons due to vigorous prosecution in Accountability Courts from 2017 to 2021, Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal said Tuesday.
Chairing a meeting held to review performance of Prosecution Division and Operation Divisions of NAB at its headquarters, the chairman said NAB was determined for logical conclusion of mega corruption cases of money laundering, Fake Accounts, Assets beyond known sources of Income, Cheating public at large, illegal Housing/Cooperative Societies and Modarba/Musharka cases by utilizing all its resources as per law.
The meeting was informed that Prosecution Division of NAB was working closely with Operations Division NAB Headquarters in order to have legal assistance to all Regional Bureaus of NAB in conduct of complaint verifications, inquiries, investigations, references and pending cases of NAB vigorously on the basis of solid evidence in the respected Courts as per law.
The forum was informed that, the Prosecution Division was being revamped by inducing experienced legal consultants/special prosecutors.Some1237 references of NAB are under trial in the learned Accountability Courts with a worth of about Rs 1335 billion. He said that out of 179 mega corruption cases of NAB, 66 mega corruption cases had been brought to logical conclusion while 93 mega corruption cases were under trial in the learned Accountability Courts of the country.
NAB is regularly reviewing the performance of NAB through computer based specially devised state of art monitoring and evaluation systems but also physically inspecting through Chairman NAB’s Inspection and Monitoring Team (CIMT) to further review overall performance of NAB.
Moreover, NAB has established its own Pakistan Training and Research Academy in which specialized training has been started to impart investigation officers as well as Prosecutors officers on modern lines in order to conduct investigations of cases of money laundering and white collar crime cases. NAB has also established an Anti Money Laundering Cell in NAB headquarters with main responsibilities to have compliance, monitoring, analysis and coordination with National FATF Secretariat and relevant stakeholders as per law.
He said that NAB has introduced a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers in order to further improve the standard and quality of inquiries and investigations on the basis of solid evidence as well as statements of witnesses and documentary evidence besides establishing state of the art Forensic Science LAB which has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint analysis. These initiatives of NAB are lending quality. NAB had devised a Monitoring and Evaluation System as well as a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in order to further improve the performance of NAB. He said that NAB has prescribed a 10 months timeframe for completion of investigations and subsequently filing of references on the allegations of corruption and corrupt practices. NAB has also established Witness Handing Cells in all its regional bureaus. Due to this reason, NAB is vigorously pursuing its cases in the learned Courts on the basis of solid documentary evidence as per law. Chairman NAB directed all NAB officers to double their efforts to nab corrupt elements as eradication of corruption is our national duty.
