LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman retired Lt Gen Nazir Ahmed has said reforms are being introduced in the bureau to overcome the anomalies for reviving its reputation.

“In the past, attempts were made to politicise NAB by using it as a tool for political engineering due to which it had to face severe criticism but now reforms are being introduced to overcome the anomalies or issues for reviving its reputation and taking elaborate actions against corruption,” he said at a cheque distribution ceremony among affectees of four housing societies here on Monday.

The chairman said that NAB’s Lahore region had recovered billions of rupees in the housing sector, forex trading and other scams and returned the money to the affectees.

Mr Ahmed said that NAB had made direct and indirect recoveries of Rs54bn and Rs200bn.

He said that ‘NAB katchari’ would be introduced in Lahore region every month in which grievances of the people would be heard.

He said that NAB was genuinely apolitical as it only aimed to work against corruption and corrupt elements.

In the Eden Housing scandal, a sum of Rs3.6bn was handed over to 11,880 victims as the first installment. In the Homeland Real Estate and Builders case, NAB Lahore recovered Rs39.6 million from the accused, of which Rs290 million returned to 67 victims.

In the Rahman City case, 124 registries worth Rs112 million were given to the victims, while Rs33.3 million handed over to the land owners.

In the Punjab Highway Department case, NAB Lahore recovered Rs43.2 million from the accused.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023