ISLAMABAD   -  National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal claimed that the bureau had solid evidence of money-laundering of billions of rupees by the big fish. “The money was laundered through fake accounts under the names of ‘falooda wala, chhabri wala and paupar wala’.” According to a statement issued by the NAB headquarters here on Sunday, the chairman said that the accountability courts, in which the NAB had filed references against the accused persons, were the relevant authority to decide the innocence of any accused person.

He said that the people who claimed their innocence in media should better request the accountability court concerned for hearing of their cases on a day-to-day basis so that they pleaded their innocence where law would take its course of action.

He said that the NAB would continue performing its national duties without caring about any baseless media reports and propaganda against NAB.

He said that the NAB was committed to the logical conclusion of mega corruption cases by utilising all available resources as per law. He said that the NAB had constituted a Combined Investigation Team (CIT) to benefit from the collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers.

He stated that the CIT had the services of director, additional director, investigation officer, legal counsel and experts of the monetary and land revenue department. He added that NAB was the focal institution of Pakistan under the UN Convention against corruption and the chairman of SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum.

He said that the NAB was considered a role model organisation in SAARC countries. The chairman said that the NAB from Oct 2017 to Oct 2021 had recovered Rs538 billion directly and indirectly from corrupt elements which was a record achievement as compared to other years which showed a commitment and dedication of the NAB officers.

He said there are 1278 corruption cases, having an accumulative volume of approximately Rs1,335 billion, are under trial in various accountability courts of the country. He said the performance of NAB has been lauded by reputed national and international institutions. The bureau is the focal organisation of Pakistan under the United National Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). He said Pakistan is the only country with whom China has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the eradication of corruption. “The performance of NAB is being reviewed regularly on the basis of a monitoring and evaluation system so that it could be improved further,” he added.

He said that youth is our future, adding that the NAB has signed an MOU with Higher Education Commission in order to aware youth about the ill effects of corruption in universities and colleges at an early age. “Under this initiative, the NAB has successfully established more than 50,000 Character Building Societies in various universities and colleges besides constituting prevention committees in consultations with respective provincial and federal government departments in order to assist them to identify and plug loopholes in order to check corruption. He said that as per Gillani and Gallup survey, 59 percent people have shown trust upon NAB.”

He said that NAB has devised a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in order to further improve the performance of NAB Headquarter and all Regional Bureaus. Under Quantified Grading System, NAB Headquarters and Regional Bureau’s are being evaluated on annual and midterm basis at a given criteria which has proved very successful in increasing the performance of NAB.