ISLAMABAD, April 20: The National Accountability Bureau has neither the capability nor the mandate to investigate corruption in the armed forces, said NAB Chairman Lt-Gen Muneer Hafeez on Saturday.
He was speaking at a seminar on “Role of NAB in arresting the abuse of power in all sectors of government functions.”
Replying to a question about steps taken by NAB to check corruption in defence deals, Lt-Gen Hafeez said NAB could only take action against public-office holders and not the armed forces or the judiciary, which had their own internal accountability mechanisms.
He said some three and two star generals had been relieved of their jobs.
He said NAB was not empowered to go into the internal rules and procedures, which the organizations must correct themselves. NAB did not have the capability to itself go fishing into all the departments nor the mandate to that effect, he said.
The NAB chairman made it clear that armed forces officials working in various ministries were public-office holders and within the purview of the bureau. However, he said: “When we talk of the armed forces, people serving in the army, navy or the air force, they are not public-office holders.”
In reply to a question, the chairman said NAB had the powers to hold the retired armed forces officials accountable. He said prosecution of Admiral Mansur was an example.
He shrugged off criticism that NAB’s accountability drive was selective.
When asked if NAB was taking steps to recover money and assets amounting to $105 billion allegedly stashed in foreign countries as revealed in the Supreme Court proceedings on NAB Ordinance about a year ago, Lt-Gen Hafeez expressed ignorance about the issue. During the proceedings, it was brought on record that the government had completed investigations against 179 persons but there cases were not taken up.
Earlier, Lt-Gen Hafeez said that during the last two years NAB investigated 1,091 cases, of which 440 were sent for prosecution. He said 238 cases had been decided.
He said NAB had a conviction rate of 83.59 per cent.
The chairman said Rs86.722 billion were recovered till April 13, including Rs66.080 billion cash recoveries against bank defaults, Rs2.37 billion through plea bargain and court fines amounting to Rs18.722 billion.
He said 437 cases are in various stages against 301 individuals, including five cases against two former prime ministers, 24 against seven former chief ministers, 16 against seven senators, 45 against 28 National Assembly members, 58 against 34 provincial assembly members, 208 against 155 bureaucrats, 38 against 25 businessmen and six cases against armed forces officials.
He said the extradition of former naval chief, Mansurul Haq, and recovery of $7.5 million in foreign currency was well received.
He said the availability of Bowstreet documents from the United Kingdom concerning former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari’s alleged corruption money, assets stashed abroad with Swiss papers transferred to Pakistan was a good stride towards recovery of the looted national wealth. The process, though slow due to international legal proceedings was not derailed, he said.
Auditor-General Manzur Hussain said the system of checks and balances was viewed as a nuisance by the vested interests. Legal provisions were made to keep the auditor-general at a distance, he said.
He said Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation manoeuvred the decision that since it was being privatized, audit by the AG would be nuisance and a provision making the entity immune to the audit was included in the law.
The PTCL had still not been privatized but the telecommunication sector, in which the people had invested billions of rupees, had managed to stay out of the jurisdiction of state audit for five years, he said.
The AG said systems improvement was an area in which the bureaucracy was extremely reluctant to move.