ISLAMABAD, May 6: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has requested the government to double its budget to meet expenditures that are going up with the expansion of the organisation.

“We have demanded almost 100 per cent increase in our annual budget to meet expenses that have shot up because of induction of an additional 350 employees into the organisation,” NAB spokesperson and adviser Dr Ayesha Siddiqa told Dawn the other day.

She said the bureau had been allocated Rs800 million but it would need at least Rs1.6 billion in the next fiscal year.

NAB’s annual budget has been gradually slashed over the past few years amid reports that the government is planning to wind up the bureau, particularly after it opened NRO cases against politicians on the directives of the Supreme Court.

However, after the government inducted officers of its ‘choice’ in NAB’s key positions, the organisation is being strengthened.