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NAB pursuing 800 probes despite cut in budget

Posted on: Mon February 08, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Despite a massive cut in the annual budget by the government, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is carrying out over 800 corruption inquiries and investigations for filing references against those being probed.

 We are working on more than 500 inquiries and over 300 investigations, which are the two categories of probes, a NAB official told The News. He said apart from these inquiries and investigations, the NAB was pursuing as many as 712 corruption references in different courts.

The official said that five of the total 21 accountability courts in existence all over Pakistan had no judges which,said, was affecting the trial of accused persons. This, he said, was resulting in delays as the functioning courts had to bear all the workload.

He said there was an urgent need to raise the number of accountability courts in the light of the December 16 Supreme Court judgment on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to speed up the disposal of corruption references. The official said the process to fill the vacant positions of judges was on, but the NAB had nothing to do with this as the federal government made such appointments on recommendations of concerned high courts. An inquiry specifies preliminary proceedings against the accused, the official explained and said that no arrest can be made at this stage. The accused is just asked about the money he has made while he has no legal sources to justify it.

He said when investigators came to the conclusion that the man facing the inquiry indulged in corrupt practices and made illegal money, investigation was started against him.In this phase, the official said, arrests are made under the NAB law. It was at this stage that some accused agree to plea bargain or voluntary return the money to extricate themselves from trial but some choose to face courts, he added.

After the investigation into a certain case is completed, the NAB prepares the reference and files it in an accountability court, he said. The official said a slash of Rs 210 million that the government introduced in the annual budget of the NAB was a major hurdle in dealing with the ongoing inquiries and investigations at a good pace.

He said if the slashed funds were provided to the NAB without any delay, the organisation would be able to accelerate its work. He said then NAB would be in a position to have more investigators and special prosecutors, who were direly required after the reopening of the corruption cases in the wake of the apex court ruling.

All inquires, investigations and corruption references will be covered by the new law, Holder of Public Office (Accountability) Act, which is under consideration for the last 11 months. It will replace the NAB Ordinance, promulgated by Pervez Musharraf.

There are reports that the Pakistan People s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are about to arrive at a consensus on the new law that is likely to be put in the National Assembly in its next session.

Courtesy : The News