Currently, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is on the new PML-N-led government’s radar. However, NAB assured PML-N that it can check all the recoveries made by NAB in the last twenty years.
Thursday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) held a meeting with NAB chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal regarding its recoveries. PML-N leader Rana Tanvir Hussain chaired the meeting. Important to note, PML-N has often accused NAB of deliberately targetting the party at the behest of the previous PTI government.
During the meeting, NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal ensured the recovery of Rs. 882 billion so far. He also added that NAB distributed Rs. 25 billion to as many as 178,000 calamity-hit people. Regarding this, he stated that NAB had with it a 20-year record of all the recoveries which the PAC members could closely scrutinise.
“Not even a single penny was embezzled. All the record has been kept safe as a moneylender,” he maintained.
Read more: NAB solves 66 mega corruption cases, recovers Rs 539 billion
PML-N questions NAB’s performance
It is no secret that PML-N is strictly against NAB. To clarify, NAB is a point of contention between PTI and PML-N. When the PTI came to power in 2018, Imran Khan had claimed that the accountability bureau would unveil Shehbaz and Nawaz Sharif’s corruption to the public and punish them for looting the public’s money. However, then-Opposition repeatedly accused NAB of a biased, one-sided, and politically motivated witch-hunt.
Therefore, ever since taking over as the new government of Pakistan, PML-N leaders have called for abolishing NAB on several occasions.
For instance, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the newly elected PML-N government will dissolve the NAB and hold its employees accountable.
“NAB’s employees looted and tortured people for years. It’s time they should be held accountable,” he said at a media talk in Islamabad. He also accused the NAB Chairman of staying quite on former prime minister Imran Khan’s corruption cases.
Read more: PML-N’s Khaqan Abbasi calls for NAB’s dissolution
https://twitter.com/rajpoot_azlaan/status/1513816900899205122?s=20&t=M-_hRgJTaHlQaKqCPbfgoQ
Similarly, PML-N lawmaker and former speaker of the National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, called for placing the entire staff of NAB along with its chairman on the Exit Control List (ECL) for their alleged corruption during the PTI-led government. He also demanded an investigation into the lifestyle of NAB officials.