Top priority is to bring back looted money, end to corruption: NAB chief

LAHORE (92 News) – NAB Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal said that his top priority is to bring back looted money and an end to corruption. Addressing a ceremony at King Edward Medical University on Wednesday, the country is under the loans of billions of rupees. “Where was this amount spent? What is the wrong when NAB asks about the spending of billions of rupees?” The NAB chairman said that people made properties abroad by looting billions of rupees. “Corruption is going on in the country for last 70 years,” he added. He claimed that they are following the policy of ‘Accountability for All’ to take the mega corruption cases to logical end. “Youths are our precious asset and future.” Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal claimed that the NAB is the only country which formed over 50,000 character-building societies in universities and colleges across the country and it was yielding positive results. He said that King Edward Medical University is looked as revered one not only in the country but also abroad. Earlier on Sept 23, NAB Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal said that Rs71 billion had been submitted to the national exchequer which was recovered during the last 22 months. Speaking the journalists, the NAB chairman mentioned that the further steps are being adopted to uproot corruption. “The institution has recovered billions of rupees from the illegal housing societies and returned to the affected people,” he added. Javed Iqbal has detailed that 600 corruption references were filed during the last 22 months. He also said that the anti-corruption watchdog has prioritised conclusive end of the mega corruption cases in order to eliminate financial irregularities across Pakistan. He said that the approximate ratio of penalising corrupt elements from the courts stands at 70 per cent while NAB is following the policy of reviewing the genre of the cases but not its fees. “I have ordered director-generals to make early arrests of proclaimed offenders. At least 1,210 corruption references are under hearing in the accountability courts. We have now decided to submit pleas for early hearings of the pending cases,” Iqbal said.