LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal says the bureau has not been involved in any ‘political engineering’.

Denying the allegation of political engineering, he said: “NAB is mandated to eliminate the menace of corruption and to recover the looted money from corrupt elements.”

He was speaking to the affectees of various scams here on Thursday.

He gave away cheques worth Rs1.05bn to the affectees of housing scams. NAB Lahore Director General Saleem Shahzad and other senior officials were also present at the ceremony.

Mr Iqbal said NAB had taken the responsibility to secure the rights of the affected people with full commitment. He said the accountability process was a “Herculean task” and a strong institution was in a better position to stamp out corruption from society.

The chairman further said NAB had recovered Rs864bn since its inception in 1999, whereas under his tenure the bureau had recovered Rs584bn. Talking about NAB’s recoveries, he maintained that its recovery had never been kept in any cupboard but the same was being disbursed among the affectees without causing any delay.

He said NAB had distributed more than Rs50 billion among the affectees of housing societies.

Justice Iqbal said NAB duly recognised the difference between the government and the state. “NAB has all its loyalties with the state of Pakistan,” he said.

Talking about the illegal housing societies functional in towns, the chairman said approximately 86 per cent of the housing societies were found as illegally operating. He advised the public to be more cautious while booking any plot, flat or house.

Justice Iqbal also admired the performance of NAB Lahore region saying the regional bureau had contributed to the overall performance of the bureau. The chairman said during his tenure 1,405 accused had been convicted.

Saleem Shahzad said the Lahore bureau had disbursed Rs15bn among thousands of affectees whereas the plots, flats and houses to the tune of Rs85bn also had been handed over to those concerned.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2022