LAHORE: The conviction rate of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Lahore, remained over 70 percent during the last four years, says Director General Shahzad Saleem.

Briefing NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal through a video link here on Monday, the DG said Lahore bureau’s conviction rate remained more than 70 per cent in the last four years leading other institutions.

The NAB chief reviewed the performance of the Lahore bureau, especially convictions made under Section 10 of National Accountability Ordinance, between 2018 and 2021.

During this year, the NAB Lahore got convicted six people and an amount Rs284m was imposed by the accountability courts.

In 2020, Mr Saleem said the regional bureau convicted 13 people and a Rs130.4 million fine was imposed on them.

In 2018-19, up to 30 accused were convicted from the accountability courts in corruption cases and a Rs1180.4 million fine was imposed on them.

Prominent accused among convicted 49 is Muhammad Muzamil for cheating general public. He was imprisoned for seven years and a fine of Rs100 million was imposed.

In a bank fraud case, Manzoor Ali Khan, Muhammad Amjad and Sajjad Ahmed have been imprisoned for five years with a fine of Rs79 million, Iftikhar Ahmed Cheema was convicted for 10-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs65m in the income beyond means case and Sheikh Zainul Abidin was imprisoned for seven-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs40.2m.

Chairman appreciated the performance of NAB Lahore prosecution wing, saying it had massively contributed to the overall performance /conviction ratio of the bureau. Currently, NAB’s overall conviction rate is 66 per cent.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2021