ISLAMABAD – National Accountability Bureau Chief, Justice Javed Iqbal was told that the conviction rate of the bureau stood at 77 percent and as much as Rs 2580 million were recovered from the corrupt individuals over a span of one year.
The meeting chaired by Justice Javed Iqbal on Thursday was attended by top officials of the organisation from regional bureaus who highlighted the progress of the accountability watchdog.
During the meeting, it was briefed that 503 individuals were arrested after having received 44,315 complaints.
‘440 references were filed by the bureau while investigations against 227 were launched’ the participants were informed.
According to a press release issued by the bureau, the NAB chief expressed that the motive behind citizen friendly NAB was to inform the applicants about the progress on their complaints as well as to improve the transparency of the body so that the trust posed in the body should be enhanced.
Moreover, the officials of the anti-graft body were also equipped with the latest techniques and training programmes by international experts on the subject of white-collar crime to enhance their skills regarding investigation.
‘The World Economic Forum has increased the ranking of Pakistan by 9 points in the global competitive index after which the country now ranks at 107 position in a community of 140 states,’ said the chief.
Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal also cited the figures by Gallup and Gillani survey according to which 59 percent of citizens posed trust in the body adding that as per the latest statistics by WEF, the number of incidents concerning corruption had plummeted from 102 in 2017 to 99 in the ongoing year.
The NAB chairman informed the attendees that the body was striving for a corruption-free Pakistan adding that it was a priority of the graft-buster to utilize its resources for nabbing corrupt individuals.
‘The mega corruption cases should be wrapped up on a priority basis,’ directed the chairman.
He also directed that the cases involving a lesser amount of embezzlement should be routed to the relevant anti-corruption departments so that the investigations can be completed in ten months time and those failing to wrap up the case in due time should be held accountable.
The NAB chief affirmed that the graft-buster did not believe in vindictive or biased policy against anybody, directing his team to extend respect to anyone appearing before the bureau.
The NAB chief expressed that the senior supervisory officers have been integrated into the Joint Investigation Team for improving the efficiency of the body and carrying out its functions without any influence.
