ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: Opposition in the National Assembly on Friday accused the National Accountability Bureau of launching a vilification campaign against politicians though it recovered more money from military officials than politicians.
The lower house was informed during the question hour that the NAB had recovered over Rs2.5 billion under the head of plea-bargain/ voluntary returns, out of which only Rs269 million belonged to 17 politicians as compared to Rs451 million from the military officials. The highest amount of Rs1,051 million was recovered from the 87 bureaucrats, while Rs771 million was received from other sources.
PPP’s Naveed Qamar, through a supplementary question had raised the issue and demanded an explanation as to why politicians were always maligned for plundering the wealth of the nation.
Mehmood Khan Achakzai even sought an apology for consistently maligning politicians during the three years of military rule when the list provided to the assembly reflected that politicians were not in the forefront of plunderers.
PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf suggested replacement of the NAB chairman by a judge of the Supreme Court since the current chairman being a military officer was not worthy of leading the institution when the number of military officials surpassed the number of politicians.
Liaquat Baloch of the Jamaat-i-Islami was of the view that the NAB had made itself controversial by granting relief even to the convicted persons. He demanded a full debate on the role of the NAB.
The press conference of the NAB chief on freezing of assets of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari in Switzerland also came under attack and objections were raised as to why the NAB chairman commented on a sub judice matter.
One of the members said that the NAB actions had discouraged investment in the coun-
try because the cases which should be dealt by the banking courts were being pursued by the NAB.
Minister of state on parliamentary affairs Raza Hiraj tried to defend the NAB. However, he said that the new government was not responsible for the actions taken by the previous regime.
He said that an state of emergency was imposed during the last three years and
therefore he could not comment on the actions taken during this period.
However, he said it were the politicians who had built this country and had not misappropriated the wealth of the nation. He also said that the government was ready to hold a debate on NAB.
The minister said that nobody whether politicians or the military personnel were above the law, adding NAB was a statutory body and the appointment of the present chairman had been made according to the relevant rules.
“Together we have to build Pakistan and therefore we should refrain from scoring points against each other,” he observed, adding that raising such issues would mean pitching civilians against the military.
Mr Hiraj explained that the organization could take cognizance and initiate legal proceedings.
The minister said that out of Rs2.5 billion, Rs2,371 million had been transferred to AGPR Federal Consolidated Fund, Rs34 million to the Central Board of Revenue, Rs90 million spent as lawyers’ fee, Rs08 million to Cooperatives and Rs07 million in NAB’s miscellaneous account.
During the last three years, the NAB had arrested 576 people, out of which 76 belonged to Sindh, 172 were from Punjab, 82 from Rawalpindi, 118 from Balochistan and 128 from the NWFP, he added.
