ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has failed to complete investigation into corruption cases against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif, former President Asif Ali Zardari and other prominent politicians, top bureaucrats and business tycoons.

In its latest report about corruption cases available at NAB’s website, the bureau says that more time is required to investigate cases against the prime minister and other senior politicians.

A senior official of NAB told Dawn that a high-level meeting of NAB held last week had decided that the bureau required more time to investigate important cases.

However, under the Supreme Court’s orders, NAB was to complete investigation into all 176 corruption cases by March 31 this year.

Some inquiries into corruption cases have been pending for over a decade in the bureau and they have not been sent to the next stage of investigation.

According to NAB’s modus operandi, the complaint is first sent for verification and after that it is sent for inquiry and then for investigation and after that a reference is filed.

In the last report, NAB’s cases against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for making allegedly illegal appointments in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and misuse of authority were under investigation and in the latest report the status of his cases is still the same. The investigation into the case was ordered in 1999.

The second case against Mr Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif has been pending since 2000 in which the two brothers had been accused of misuse of authority and misappropriation of Rs125.6 million in the construction of a road from Raiwind to Sharif family’s house. The NAB said in its latest report that this case was still under investigation.

Similarly, a case against former President Asif Ali Zardari related to assets beyond his known sources of income has been still under trial since 2001.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2016