ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court reprimanded National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Chaudhry Qamar Zaman on Wednesday for not investigating major scandals and using the bureau’s resources and energies on petty cases.

Taking notice of what it termed NAB’s ‘poor performance’, the court directed the bureau’s chairman to submit by July 7 a comprehensive report on investigations into 150 big corruption cases.

The court also ordered NAB to submit a separate report within a week on privatisation of the Muslim Commercial Bank.

During the hearing of a case related to suspension of investigation into privatisation of the bank, the court ordered the NAB chief to submit a report with details of 50 major financial scams, 50 land scandals and 50 cases of misuse of authority.

The court told the NAB chief it had been informed that NAB was doing nothing against big fish involved in major scams.

“NAB is afraid of some business tycoons who have plunged the country into crises,” Justice Maqbool Baqar remarked.

“It seems that NAB will do nothing to eradicate corruption. If this attitude continues we will not remain silent,” he added.

The three-member bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja started hearing the case and asked NAB Prosecutor General Waqas Dar that the bureau had concealed facts in its report presented to the court.

The prosecutor general said that he only dealt with the prosecution and had nothing to do with decision-making.

Justice Khawaja said: “There are circumstances which suggest that a lie is being told before the court.”

Justice Baqar said the court would not tolerate any leniency on the part of NAB and take all possible steps if across-the-board action was not taken against influential and big corrupt people.

Justice Azmat Saeed said people would not sit idle if NAB did not take action against corrupt people. “NAB should not create problems for itself and take appropriate steps without wasting more time,” he said.

He said it had come to the court’s notice that 70 per cent cases were disposed of through voluntarily return and more than 25pc were settled through plea-bargain deals, whereas the prosecution did not exist.

The NAB chairman assured the court that he would try to mend ways and also investigate major cases.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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