ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday hailed National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for “record recovery of Rs6.2 trillion” (mostly assets) in 2025. He also praised NAB Chairman Nazir Ahmed Butt’s leadership and the bureau’s reform-driven transformation into a transparent, people- and business-friendly institution.

The speaker expressed these views during a meeting with Chairman NAB at Parliament House, where Nazir Ahmed presented the NAB’s Annual Report 2025.

Sadiq commended the leadership of NAB chief and said under his (nab chairman) stewardship the anti-graft watchdog achieved a record-breaking recovery of Rs. 6.213 trillion—the highest annual figure since its inception in 1999.

A NAB press release issued said the speaker appreciated NAB’s cumulative recoveries of Rs11.5 trillion (mostly in terms of land recoveries) over the past three years, noting that the 2025 recovery alone accounts for more than half of this amount and is thirteen times higher than the total recoveries recorded over the preceding 23 years.

The speaker also expressed satisfaction over NAB’s 72 per cent prosecution success rate, terming it a significant indicator of institutional effectiveness. He highlighted NAB’s success in reclaiming approximately 2.98 million acres of encroached or misappropriated state and forest land, valuing at Rs5.98 trillion.

Lauding NAB’s people-centric approach, the speaker noted that the bureau has provided relief to 115,587 affected persons of fraudulent housing and investment schemes through the disbursement of Rs180 billion.

He also acknowledged NAB’s focus on complex financial crimes, which led to the attachment of assets worth Rs. 127 billion in 39 high-profile anti-money laundering cases. These include the establishment of specialized facilitation cells for parliamentarians, civil bureaucracy, the business community, and overseas Pakistanis.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2026