ISLAMABAD: The National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday approved three references to be filed against former heads of three government institutions.

The decision was taken in the NAB Executive Board Meeting (EBM) chaired by anti-graft watchdog chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal.

Of the three references, one was approved against former chairman of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) retired Vice Admiral Ahmed Hayat and others for allegedly allotting state land illegally, causing a loss of Rs18.18 billion to the national kitty.

Another reference will be filed against Dr Ehsan Ali, former vice chancellor of Khan Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, and others. They are accused of misappropriating the funds allocated for the purchase of vehicles and fuel, causing a loss of Rs23.48m to the national exchequer.

An ex-chief of KPT, a vice chancellor and an executive engineer face legal action

The EBM authorised the third reference against Ayaz Ahmed, executive engineer of the irrigation department of east division in Khairpur, and others for misappropriating government funds in various schemes and awarding contracts to favourites, inflicting Rs89.3m losses on the exchequer.

The meeting also approved investigations against Malik Naveed Khan, former inspector general of Frontier Corps.

Inquiries were also approved against officers/officials of Mian Rashid Shaheed Memorial Hospital, Pabbi, Nowshera and others.

According to a NAB spokesman, the bureau wanted to clarify that the details of the decisions taken in the board meeting had been shared with the people as per routine and sharing these decisions was not aimed at hurting anyone’s self-respect.

“All inquiries and investigations are being authorised on the basis of allegations which are not final. NAB decides about proceedings ahead on such cases after ascertaining the veracity of accusations by hearing the complainants and accused persons as per law,” the spokesman said.

NAB chief Javed Iqbal said the bureau was pursuing the policy of ‘accountability for all’ and considered eradication of corruption as its foremost responsibility.

He said the bureau was making tireless efforts to rid the country of the menace of corruption, adding that NAB had already established a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory to investigate corruption cases on modern lines.

Rejecting the allegations of lacking capacity to conduct investigations into white-collar cases, the anti-graft watchdog chairman said taking white-collar corruption cases to its logical conclusion was its priority.

The bureau, he said, had already filed 1,210 mega corruption references involving over Rs900bn worth of corruption in various accountability courts that were under trial.

NAB had filed 590 corruption references in different accountability courts during the past 13 months that were also under trial in the respective accountability courts, he added.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2019